evening clothes
3
3.8
- noun
:
ropa de noche
- Edward—now wearing evening clothes—and Vivian climb out of the limo.
- wear evening clothes
- black evening clothes
- couple in evening clothes
Examples
-
They are still in their evening clothes.
Fiction book (1999) -
She looks exquisite in her evening clothes.
Fiction book (1996) -
I had better press your evening clothes, sir.
-
Kay stands over him, still in her evening clothes.
Fiction book (1992) -
Basically, all you need is one suit of evening clothes... and a tailcoat.
-
Her evening clothes cost hundreds of dollars, even in the Fifties, but my father loved the way she dressed.
Fiction book (1991) -
He has snatched his dinner, got rid of the dust of travel, and changed into evening clothes.
Blog text (22) -
As the doorman reads, a patrician-looking couple in evening clothes push their way to the front.
Fiction book (1992) -
Valerian had dressed himself very carefully, daring to wear formal evening clothes made expressly for him during his time in Paris.
Fiction book (1991) -
He wore a classic tuxedo as his evening clothes for the gala.
Synonyms
3
3.6
Clothes for special events in the evening, like suits or long dresses
1
4.2
Clothes worn for formal evening events like dinners or parties
How Formal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase simply combines 'evening' (the period of late afternoon/night) with 'clothes' (items worn), so its core meaning — clothes worn in the evening — is directly derivable from the constituents. While in some contexts it implies more formal or special-occasion attire, that pragmatic nuance does not prevent a B1 learner who knows both words from understanding the basic concept, and the composition is cross-linguistically straightforward.
Etymology
Evening clothes comes from a simple picture: people would change out of work clothes and put on nicer evening clothes for dinners, balls or parties after dark. So, evening clothes means 'formal clothes' worn for special night events.