finery
1 Americannoun
noun
plural
fineriesnoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of finery1
First recorded in 1670–80; fine 1 + -ery
Origin of finery2
1600–10; < Middle French finerie, equivalent to fin ( er ) to refine ( fine 1 ) + erie -ery
Explanation
Finery is fancy and expensive clothing and jewelry. A lot of high school students look forward to the prom as a chance to dress up in their finery. Your fanciest clothes are finery, especially if they're elaborate or pricey. Many people dress in finery to attend formal weddings, wearing long gowns and well-tailored tuxedos. The fancy shoes, hats, necklaces, and ties are all also considered to be finery. The word came into use around 1670, literally meaning "something that is fine," from the "high quality" meaning of fine.
Vocabulary lists containing finery
Beowulf
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Tolkien Reading Day, List 9
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Crossing the Wire
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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.
With the glamorous catwalks, celebrities and excess of finery on display, the possibility of the recent investigations uncovering labour abuses being on anyone's mind appeared slim.
From Barron's • Feb. 27, 2026
Every night, the gentlemen suit up and the ladies don their finery, although nothing is as fancy as when the family hosts balls or extremely fancy dinners for special guests.
From Salon • Nov. 1, 2025
He looks out the window and says “There’s a parade, and a great princess is walking by in all her finery . . .”
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 9, 2025
It is a quintessentially British tennis experience: punters dressed in their finery, Pimm's in full flow and a beautiful setting, with as much care taken of the flowers and greenery as the pristine courts.
From BBC • Jun. 15, 2025
She unzipped it and took it off, looking around at the various stages of costumed finery.
From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon
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.
