shipshape and Bristol fashion
1
9.3
- idiom
- UK
:
en perfecto estado
- The office was left shipshape and Bristol fashion after the cleaning crew finished their work.
Examples
-
Everything's shipshape and Bristol fashion with your false beard now.
-
He feels fine and tells me the Nereus is shipshape and Bristol fashion once again.
Fiction book (1999) -
Likes his house shipshape, he does, shipshape and Bristol fashion all times.
-
She organized her closet until it was shipshape and Bristol fashion, with all clothes neatly hung.
-
After the renovation, the house was shipshape and Bristol fashion, ready for the open house event.
Synonyms
47
1.0
Having things in order with no mess
7
1.8
Neat and in good condition because someone looks after it
4
1.4
Clean and well organized with no mess
3
4.2
Very clean and tidy, looking almost new
3
4.6
Neat and attractive, often dressed or decorated for a special occasion
Neat and clean with everything in its place
Antonyms
How Neat
Surface Forms
Morphology
shipshape + and + Bristol + fashion
Although 'shipshape' has a partly transparent feel (ship + shape → tidy), the collocation 'Bristol fashion' is a regional/historical idiom whose sense ('in good order') is not derivable from 'Bristol' (a place name) + 'fashion' (manner). The full fused phrase is a conventional idiom whose overall meaning depends on historical usage rather than straightforward compositional semantics, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituents would not reliably infer the idiomatic sense.
Etymology
The idiom shipshape and Bristol fashion comes from old sailors. A shipshape ship meant every rope and sail was tidy and ready, and Bristol fashion pointed to ships from Bristol being well kept, so the phrase now means 'neat and in excellent order'.