dressed up to the nines
dressed to the teeth
dressed to the nines

I feel like getting dressed up to the nines.'

Dressed up to the nines for somebody.

Evelyn was dressed up to the nines.

Dressed up to the nines--daughter's a smart, pretty girl.

Dressed up to the Nines (10 March 2004)

As usual the wee Glaswegian was dressed up to the nines: sharp black suit, silk shirt and tie.

Samantha is dressed up to the nines, and as she expresses her interest in Ivan, Mabel becomes insecure.

Dressed up to the nines in riding breeches, polished boots and a hacking jacket, like some English country squire.

Dressed up to the nines, smelling like . . . well, no woman he'd ever smelt before.

Hotten also included dressed up to the nines, defined as we use it today: "in a showy or recherche manner."

In modern English usage, the phrase most commonly appears as "dressed to the nines" or "dressed up to the nines".

I have been watching you coast by my house on the top floor of the number 3 bus - off to your super job, dressed up to the nines.

Dressed up to the nines, I greet Padma as she rushes to my desk, flounces down on the floor beside me, commands: 'Begin.'

CHAPTER VIII The Sports Happily enough, it did not rain next day, and after morning school everybody dressed up to the nines.

In spite of this, it was half an hour before she came downstairs dressed up to the nines in a pin-striped trouser-suit, her hair caught up in a turban of white silk.

Which is how I came to find myself last Friday night, dressed up to the nines in an Audrey Hepburn shift dress and pearls - the dress code specified on the invitation.

People used to come into my shop, great beautiful ladies like you'd 'ardly dream of now, dressed up to the nines, and say, 'Well, Mr. Smallways, what you got 'smorning?'

So I guess I owe you an apology,' he said ruefully, 'although when you walked in through the kitchen door, all dressed up to the nines after being with Ryan, I wanted anything but to forgive you.'

The old ladies arriving on Sunday morning may be dressed up to the nines, with black gloves and broad-brimmed straw hats, but the porch is being swept by a dreadlocked janitor with a T-shirt that reads, "Who let the pigs out?"

With her ski mask on hand, revolver loaded and sitting on her hip, and night vision goggles strapped to her fore- head, she felt even more like an imposter than she did when she was dressed up to the nines to meet the nobs.