fancy dress
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fancy dress
First recorded in 1760–70
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.
A masquerade without masks is merely fancy dress with an open bar.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
Brazilian police have disguised themselves using fancy dress to blend in as Carnival-goers to target phone thieves in Rio de Janeiro.
From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2026
New Year's Day is traditionally the day when brave swimmers don their fancy dress for the Loony Dook - a hangover-clearing dip in the bracing waters of the Firth of Forth.
From BBC ● Dec. 28, 2025
"The elites and the people in fancy dress get a lot of attention but I like to think we represent the club runners who were at the core of that very first marathon," he says.
From BBC ● May 4, 2025
“She came to the last one, she said, and enjoyed it very much. I did not know you have fancy dress dances here, Frank.”
From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
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.
