soup and fish

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

From the first courses served at gala dinners, where formal dress is worn.

Noun

[edit]

soup and fish (usually uncountable, plural soup and fishes)

  1. (dated, slang) Men's formal white tie dress.
    • 1916 March 11, Charles E. Van Loan, “His Folks”, in Saturday Evening Post[1]:
      Not a thing, you notice, about Elmer showing up in the soup and fish—the women thought that was all right. May Wilson even said that he looked well in the outfit.
    • 1933, Desmos of Delta Sigma Delta, volumes 39-40, page 173:
      Then the boys shake the moth-balls out of the “soup and fishes” and try to crowd 180-250 pounds of avoirdupois into 135-160 pound suits, trusting that twenty-year-old seams will stand the strain for one more night.
    • 1937, Marion Rolfe Johnson Deitrick, Tomorrow the Accolade, page 169:
      [] to not buy hundred-dollar official soup-and-fishes when officially recommended to do so []

Alternative forms

[edit]