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Synonyms

Sunday best

British  

noun

  1. one's best clothes, esp regarded as those most suitable for churchgoing

"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
Sunday best Idioms  

  1. One's finest clothes, as in They were all in their Sunday best for the photographer. This expression alludes to reserving one's best clothes for going to church; indeed, an older idiom is Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes (meeting here meaning “prayer meeting”). [Mid-1800s]

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.

“You’re dressing up in your Sunday best and you’re going to be there for several hours.”

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 11, 2025

There are pictures of a grand house, and there is an image of some of the young boys in their Sunday best in front of a large ship.

From BBC • Dec. 24, 2023

An exquisite portrait miniature of Rose Prentice, a domestic worker in her Sunday best, painted around 1837, joins the constellation of proud, self-possessed Black women to have served as muse to the artist Mickalene Thomas.

From New York Times • Sep. 8, 2023

They wore their Sunday best — coats and ties for the men, dresses for the women.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 19, 2023

The children were dressed in their Sunday best, and I, in a flight of patriotism, had tied a red, white, and blue ribbon to my best hat.

From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson

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.