finery
1 Americannoun
noun
-
fineries
plural
noun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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 ( see 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.
See Examples For:
Once dressed in their wedding finery in the palace of the local ruler, the young women parade through the streets of Shao before the mass wedding is blessed by the priest of Awon.
From Barron's ● 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
Senegalese influencer Khaby Lame took pocket watch finery to stunning heights.
From Salon ● May 6, 2025
The remarkable thing is that Trump is fine with eliminating all this finery.
From Slate ● Apr. 30, 2025
"The docks are no place for lady's finery."
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
While most festivalgoers don the likes of velvet, bodices, feathered caps and other fineries, Matthews and his friends coordinated peasant-inspired costumes in an effort to represent the everyman.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 23, 2022
The burial site, and particularly the crown and other fineries interred with the woman, hinted at a premodern European culture in which women might have held considerable power.
From New York Times ● Nov. 17, 2021
No one thought to escort her off stage, strip her of her fineries, and save us all this torture?
From The Guardian ● Dec. 22, 2015
Beyond the constant dialectic between streetwear and ladylike fineries - the sweatshirts and pencil skirts were worn together - the collection was also playing with opacity and transparency.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 7, 2011
Her luggage was no doubt following in the cart: box upon box of fineries; different dresses for every day in the week; jewel-cases full of glittering gems!
From The Daughters of a Genius by Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
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.
