dress whites
1
6.0
- noun
- /drɛs waɪts/
- Specialized
:
uniforme de gala
- PHOTOS: The Royal Nepal Army Band, left, performs in dress whites for the festival honoring the god Indra.
- wearing dress whites
- officers in dress whites
Examples
-
There were several notes of color; in fact, purples, reds, and greens clashed with each other, and off in a corner, under blue dry-cleaning plastic, were two sets of dress whites.
Fiction book (1992) -
He never could be sure later if he jumped or was blown overboard, but he found himself in the water at the stem of the battleship, still fully clothed in his dress whites for sightseeing.
Fiction book (1997) -
I'm gonna need my dress whites.
-
- That's the reason for the dress whites.
-
The dress whites and summer seersucker show equal quality.
Academic text (2014) -
The Boarding Party wears dress whites and is unarmed.
Fiction book (2000) -
All the officers are in dress whites, and all the wives wear white gloves and cocktail dresses as a Navy string quartet plays softly in the background.
Fiction book (1997) -
Yarns, I said, and suddenly there he was, promoted to an officer on R and R from his "can" in the Korean straits, skiing down Mount Fuji in dress whites.
Fiction book (1991) -
The Navy officers looked sharp in their dress whites during the formal ceremony.
-
Before the event, he carefully pressed his dress whites to ensure they were spotless.
Synonyms
8
4.1
A formal uniform worn by people in the military for ceremonies and official events
8
2.9
Clothes that soldiers and other people in the armed forces wear to show who they are and for official duties
1
6.0
A very formal uniform that military or navy officers wear at official ceremonies
Clothes of light color worn for sports or as part of a uniform
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'formal white uniform' is directly derivable from combining 'dress' (formal attire) with 'whites' (white clothing articles); a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer it refers to formal white clothes worn for ceremony. Although it is a domain-specific (military) collocation, the composition is literal and predictable rather than idiomatic.
Etymology
Dress whites comes from the clear image of members of the military putting on bright white uniforms for important ceremonies. Here dress means a 'formal uniform' and whites are the white clothes, so the phrase now means a 'formal white uniform' worn on 'special occasions'.