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• white tie
  white tie

  noun

  formal evening dress for men (distinguished from black tie).
• white-tie
  white-tie

  adjective

  requiring that guests wear formal attire, especially that men wear white bow ties with formal evening dress.

white tie

¹ American  

noun

1. formal evening dress for men (distinguished from black tie).

2. a white bow tie for men, worn with formal evening dress.

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white-tie ² American  

[hwahyt-tahy, wahyt-] / ˈʰwaɪtˈtaɪ, ˈwaɪt- /

adjective

1. requiring that guests wear formal attire, especially that men wear white bow ties with formal evening dress.

   a white-tie embassy reception.

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white tie British  

noun

1. a white bow tie worn as part of a man's formal evening dress

2. 1. formal evening dress for men

   2. ( as modifier )

      a white-tie occasion

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Etymology

Origin of white-tie

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

white tie white-tie

Trump loves to dress up in white tie and tails to hob-nob with the royals.

From Salon ● May 3, 2026

Guests, which also included Republican lawmakers and several Fox personalities, wore white tie and enjoyed a three-course meal that included ravioli with herbs from the White House garden and Dover sole.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026

Before the Japan Fair this year, emcee Tomo Hoku Angie gave him a white tie and pocket square patterned with mini hearts and illustrations of pink origami cranes.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 8, 2023

Presiding over the courtroom in the traditional black robe and white tie, he immediately threw out the case, citing a youth court statute that encourages rehabilitation rather than punishment.

From New York Times ● Apr. 22, 2023

The second man was huge, of a light coffee color, imposing in a frock coat and white tie.

From "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner

"President Trump was wrong," Pence told assembled journalists and their guests at the Gridiron dinner, an annual white-tie event in Washington, D.C.

From Reuters ● Mar. 12, 2023

Later, the King will host a glittering white-tie banquet at Buckingham Palace for President Ramaphosa where both men will give speeches.

From BBC ● Nov. 21, 2022

The Met’s opening night is a marker of the start of New York’s social season, a series of white-tie and black-tie gatherings that was largely skipped in 2020-21.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 12, 2021

He claimed he heard the president say upon entering the white-tie banquet: “So many newspaper reporters. So many interviews to turn down.”

From Washington Post ● Mar. 22, 2021

For Britain, of course, that would be Queen Elizabeth II, the world’s longest-reigning monarch, who welcomed him to Buckingham Palace last year with an 82-gun salute and a lavish white-tie state banquet.

From New York Times ● Feb. 23, 2020