dolled up

Idioms  

1. Also, all dolled up. Dressed or fixed up smartly and, often, ostentatiously, usually for a special occasion. For example, There's no need to get all dolled up—it's just a picnic, or They dolled up the classroom for parents' night. This expression alludes to a person or object being as attractive as a pretty doll. It is also put verbally, to doll up, as in I wanted to doll up my apartment before the guests arrived. [Colloquial; c. 1900] Also see gussied up.

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Example Sentences

His TikTok videos show him tending to horses in the barn, dolled up with his girlfriend at major races placing $5,000 bets and celebrating big wins.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 1, 2026

For everything getting dolled up and showing out takes, I constantly hear, instead, everyone say they had so much fun that night.

From Salon • Mar. 31, 2025

Grant made sure some of their parents who were incarcerated got photos of their kids all dolled up in dresses and tuxedos.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 19, 2023

You won’t find a typical glazed or jelly doughnut behind the display case at Zuri’s, where wild combo flavors dolled up in technicolor are the counter shop’s M.O.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 4, 2023

Wouldn’t Aunt Ivy get a wrench in her whalebone corset to see me dolled up?

From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson