all dressed up and nowhere to go
- idiom
- Informal
:
bien vestido y sin a dónde ir
- She spent hours preparing, only to find herself all dressed up and nowhere to go after her date called off.
Examples
-
After getting ready for the gala, he was all dressed up and nowhere to go when it was unexpectedly canceled.
-
I feel all dressed up and nowhere to go this weekend.
-
When the meeting was postponed, the team was all dressed up and nowhere to go.
-
Why are you all dressed up and nowhere to go?
-
After getting ready for the gala, he was all dressed up and nowhere to go when it was unexpectedly canceled.
-
She spent hours preparing, only to find herself all dressed up and nowhere to go after her date called off.
-
I feel all dressed up and nowhere to go this weekend with no plans in sight.
Synonyms
82
2.7
Wearing special formal clothes for a party or event
3
7.6
Wearing very elegant formal clothes for a special occasion
2
4.4
Wearing clothes that are too fancy for an event
Wearing smart clothes for a special event
To wear nice clothes for a special event
Antonyms
How Formal
- UK
1
6.3
- Informal
82
2.7
127
2.4
81
1.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
all + dressed + up + and + nowhere + to + go
The meaning is directly built from the constituents: 'all dressed up' conveys being fully or formally dressed (dressed + up indicating completeness), and 'nowhere to go' literally means having no place or event to attend. This straightforward compositional structure (common across many languages) makes the overall sense immediately recoverable for a B1 learner who knows the individual words.
Etymology
The idiom all dressed up and nowhere to go paints a picture of someone wearing their best clothes (dressed up) only to find the party or plan is canceled so they have 'nowhere to go'. That's why it means 'wearing smart clothes with no event or occasion to attend'.