gussied

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Related to gussied: gussied up, all gussied up

gussied up

Dressed or decorated fancifully or attractively, especially in a showy, garish, or tawdry manner. You sure got gussied up for the occasion! A tuxedo and everything! Samantha's always going around town all gussied up in those tacky dresses and cheap makeup.

See also: gussied, up

gussy up

1. To improve one's appearance, as by wearing fancy clothing and/or make-up. In this usage, a noun, pronoun, or reflexive pronoun can be used between "gussy" and "up." Why are you all gussied up? Is your boyfriend coming to visit today? I need to gussy myself up for the big event tonight.

2. To add something to something to make it fancier or more appealing. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "gussy" and "up." This room is so plain. How can we gussy it up for the big event?

gussied up

Rur. dressed up fancy. All the girls got gussied up for the dance, but the guys wore their regular clothes. Mary really got gussied up. She even curled her hair.

See also: gussied, up

gussy someone or something up

Rur. to dress someone or something up; to make someone or something fancy. She gussied the kids up for the wedding. See if you can gussy up this room a little before folks get here.

gussied up

Also, all gussied up. Dressed up, as in Dana loves to get all gussied up and go to a fine restaurant. The origin of this expression is not clear, though possibly it relates to the earlier use of the noun gussie (derived from a proper name) for an effeminate man. [Slang; mid-1900s]

See also: gussied, up

gussy up

v. Slang

1. To dress someone in special or fancy clothes. Used chiefly in the passive or with a reflexive: We were gussied up in ball gowns. I gussied myself up for the party.

2. To add embellishing details to something in order to make it more attractive: The chef gussied up the meat loaf with a truffle sauce. The decorators gussied the room up for the ceremony.

gussied up

(ˈgəsid...)

mod. dressed up in one’s best clothing. (Folksy.) I like to get gussied up and go out on the town.

See also: gussied, up

References in periodicals archive ?

Perhaps it's a Welsh man thing, this desire not to dress a proposal up in hearts and flowers, like wanting your lamb shoulder joint roasted plain and simple, not gussied up with garlic and rosemary and goodness knows whatever else Continental nonsense.

Gav could have worked a bit harder on that proposal

While the piece is well crafted and gussied up with some rather pretty music, it is far from memorable.

L'AMICO FRITZ

Gribbens was bought out last year by a Kitchener-based farm equipment dealer, renamed and gussied up.

Gribbens becomes Town & Country Sales & Service

Peter was gussied up with a jewel-encrusted cover over its papal tiara--the three-tiered imperial crown that had been discarded by Pope Paul VI as too triumphant.

The pallium

From "all gussied up" to "zoot suit", each entry offers plain, no-nonsense information about the history and usage of each phrase (or the best known theories of the phrase's origin).

The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins

She is so adorable, in her little camouflaged nest all gussied up with lace and yarn.

Wren couture

I'm the girl who always had pretty much stock guns, never gussied anything up, never felt a need for anything customized or 'specially mine.

Ahrends grips: form follows function--and boy ain't it nice!

One of the tropes of New Journalism was itself the attachment of the word "New" on some phenomenon or personality that had gussied itself up with fern plants or sideburns or a listener-friendly vocabulary, and thus had changed sufficiently enough to warrant a fresh article in a stylish magazine or newspaper section: "The New Nixon," for example.

America the ornery: Peter Wood thinks we luxuriate in our anger. You got a problem with that?

To see the children all gussied up in their finery--beautiful white dresses for the girls, natty black suits for the boys--sets my heart to sinking.

Abusing the sacraments

Stephanie and Vicki gussied up Abby; Yvonne and Tam worked on Rachel; and Nancy and Lannie decorated Virginia and Wendy as Kelly labored on Susan.

FINGERS, TOES GET HOLIDAY CHEER SNOWMEN, HOLLY OFFERED AT SALONS

It's also easy to dismiss them, despite their authoritative beauty, as glamorous tourist entertainment gussied up for proscenium stages.

Black Grace

Many acoustic guitar recordings of original compositions sound like old folk licks all gussied up, but this set by Peter Finger sounds fresh and original, as if the guitar just happens to be his instrument.

Peter Finger: Open Strings (Acoustic Music Records 013429 111734)

Not surprising for a consciously transpartisan document - the very first line boasts, "We come together as citizens of diverse beliefs and differing political affiliations" - the authors' "recommendations" largely consist of banal truisms gussied up in pretentious and often comically tentative language.

Truth squad: the coercive agenda behind the "civil society" movement

Is this gussied gossip from an ivy-covered, ebony soap opera?

Confronting Authority: Reflections of an Ardent Protester

After several decades of assuming that love gets gussied up in a wide variety of cultural costumes and may not even exist in some non-Western societies, many psychologists now argue that romantic love blooms in all corners of the world.

Romantic reverie: mild-mannered reporter dreams up tale of love, sex, and celebrity worship

CITE

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