gussy up

Definitions

1. To don fancy clothing; to dress up particularly in flattering or specially altered garments.
   US, informal, intransitive
2. To make fancy or attractive, as by artificial or contrived means.
   US, informal, transitive

Equivalents

Examples

“You bet⟳ she'll gussy up for the party.”

“Not trusting filmgoers to catch⟳ the drift, Ms. Coppola underscores the women’s attempts to gussy up with snippets of arch dialogue.”

“You can have⟳ plain green beans, or gussie them up with a bit of cheese and onion.”

“WWE and WCW gussied up the ritual with a lot of shock-and-awe pyrotechnics and the most innovative use⟳ of video graphics this side of MTV. Not so Extreme Championship Wrestling.”

“The trouble⟳ arrives when he tries to gussy up his psychologist’s hat with his more elaborate public intellectual’s attire.”

CEFR level