glad rags

Definition

Formal attire, dress clothes.

Etymology

US origin, late 19th c.

Example Sentences

• "1896, Henry M. Blossom, Jr., Checkers: A Hard-luck Story, Grosset & Dunlap, page 39, “But say, you wouldn’t have known me if you’d seen me here with my wife that time—my glad rags on, a stove-pipe lid, patent leather kicks and a stone on my front. […]"
• "1897 April, W. H. Carruth and Paul Wilkinson, "Dialect Word-List.—No. 4", in Kansas University Quarterly, Series B:—Philology and History, Volume VI, Number 2, University of Kansas, page 88, glad rags: “Sunday-go-to-meeting” clothes.—General."
• "1920, Helen Reimensnyder Martin, The Schoolmaster of Hessville, Doubleday, page 285, “[…] Or she’ll say, ‘Well, I must go now and put on my glad rags.’ Glad rags yet, John! Yes, that’s what she calls her best frock! Ain’t it funny? […]”"