soup-and-fish

[ soop-uhn-fish ]

noun

, Informal.

1. a man's formal evening clothes.

Word History and Origins

Origin of soup-and-fish¹

Alluding to the early courses of a formal dinner

Example Sentences

Then into the Drones' Club shimmers a cove in soup-and-fish, yipping, "You're going to be a knight, old bean."

From Time Magazine Archive

As for wearing evening dress, in the words of Gerald they "had to blindfold him and back him into his soup-and-fish, even on the night the Italian Opera Company came to town."

From Project Gutenberg

To dance all night in twenty-one different places, ranging from dives to strictly soup-and-fish.

From Project Gutenberg

Supposed to be beautiful—and would be a society light except that Lawrence doesn't care for the soup-and-fish stuff.

From Project Gutenberg

He took me to supper at some swell joint where they all had the soup-and-fish on but me.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• evening gown