Bristol fashion
Americanadjective
adverb
-
nautical clean and neat, with newly painted and scrubbed surfaces, brass polished, etc
-
in good order; efficiently arranged
Etymology
Origin of Bristol fashion
1830–40; after Bristol, England
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Well, looks like everything’s mostly shipshape and Bristol fashion, luvvy,” said Miss Forcible.
From "Coraline" by Neil Gaiman
It is often the custom of men-of-war's-men, when they deem anything to be going on wrong aboard ship to refer to last cruise when of course everything was done ship-shape and Bristol fashion.
From White Jacket or, the World on a Man-of-War by Melville, Herman
"We've come aboard, sir, all shipshape and Bristol fashion."
From The Pirate Shark by Arting, Fred J.
We slept Bristol fashion, with one eye open.
From The Mayor of Troy by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir
There was no foolish gilding and gingerbread work, to take the eye of landsmen and passengers, but everything was "ship-shape and Bristol fashion."
From Two Years Before the Mast by Dana, Richard Henry
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
