best bib and tucker

Idioms and Phrases

One's finest clothes, dressed up, as in The men were told to put on their best bib and tucker for the dinner dance . Although wearing either a bib (frill at front of a man's shirt) or a tucker (ornamental lace covering a woman's neck and shoulders) is obsolete, the phrase survives. [Mid-1700s] For a synonym, see Sunday best .

Example Sentences

My dad Bill was on a night shift so he came home, got me and my brother Kevin out of bed, got us dressed in our best bib and tucker and took us down to the station to have our picture taken.

From BBC

The orator is conning for the last time the speech in which he has vainly attempted to season with some new spice the yearly panegyric upon our country; its happiness and glory; the audience is putting on its best bib and tucker, and its blandest expression to listen.

From Project Gutenberg

All the family wore their best bib and tucker, and even Stepan Mihailovitch was forced to smarten himself up.

From Project Gutenberg

When the attorney came, she had on her "best bib and tucker," and never looked lovelier.

From Project Gutenberg

On the morning of All Saints' Day, and while numerous bells, in tuneful voices, reminded London of souls departed, and souls to be saved, Silas Jones and his twin spirit, Sarah Kane, having arrayed themselves in best bib and tucker, had taken the underground rail from Bayswater, and with the multitude were trying not to lose one another in the London fog—a regular pea-souper, in which the coat-pocket of Silas had been picked of pipe, tobacco and handkerchief.

From Project Gutenberg