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Synonyms

evening dress

American  

noun

  1. formal or semiformal attire for evening wear.

evening dress British  

noun

  1. attire for wearing at a formal occasion during the evening, esp (for men) a dinner jacket and black tie, or (less commonly, for women) a floor-length gown

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of evening dress

First recorded in 1790–1800

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.

She said she used to attend some classes “wearing my evening dress under my Burberry, with my diamonds in my pocket so I could go out afterward.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 20, 2026

Items included the "perfect" white cotton t-shirt, a striped blue "boyfriend" shirt and white linen trousers, as well as more formal items such as a black wool blazer and a full-length, ivory-coloured evening dress.

From BBC • Mar. 24, 2025

Technically, they should only be worn with full evening dress, known as white tie, but as that hardly exists any longer … oh, go ahead.

From Washington Post • Dec. 21, 2021

There were psychedelic swirls of orange and brown in a pantsuit and an evening dress with a high slit.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 25, 2021

From under her pillow — a wadded-up evening dress — she brought out her pen and notepad and began to draw.

From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray

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.