best bib and tucker

Idioms  

1. One's finest clothes, dressed up, as in The men were told to put on their best bib and tucker for the dinner dance. Although wearing either a bib (frill at front of a man's shirt) or a tucker (ornamental lace covering a woman's neck and shoulders) is obsolete, the phrase survives. [Mid-1700s] For a synonym, see Sunday best.

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Example Sentences

Melbourne proudly put on its best bib and tucker for the local girl who made good.

From Time Magazine Archive

Presently Monsieur Station Master, and Madame Station Master, and little Station Master fils appeared, each in best bib and tucker, and led the way across the fields, to a little thatched farmhouse two miles distant.

From London Days A Book of Reminiscences by Warren, Arthur

The town will put it in headlines at once, and with it a picture of yourself in your best bib and tucker, looking as though you loved the whole world.

From His Family by Poole, Ernest

Dressed in his best bib and tucker, he was, beaver hat and all.

From Fair Harbor by Lincoln, Joseph Crosby

Then yard-arm and yard-arm, the frigate with her canvas canopy of upper sails furled, and the brig in her best bib and tucker, they both filled away and moved side by side.

From Captain Brand of the "Centipede" A Pirate of Eminence in the West Indies: His Love and Exploits, Together with Some Account of the Singular Manner by Which He Departed This Life by Wise, H. A. (Henry Augustus)