She was much happier in jeans and a jogging top. They were dolled up to the nines , and all heads turned as they walked in. Xiaomi gets up to the nines with Redmi smartphones. In our town, everybody decorates their house to the nines on the eve of Christmas. After the divorce, she was grieving and stressed to the nines. The rooms are outfitted to the nines with floor-to-ceiling. The boats were decorated to the nines , coast along the beach.
Origin It seems that the expression is originally related to the Nine Worthies or the nine Muses. The earliest written example of the phrase is from the Epistle to Ramsay by the Scottish poet William Hamilton: The bonny Lines therein thou sent me, How to the nines they did content me. One theory has it that tailors used nine yards of material to make a suit or, according to some authors, a shirt.
The more material you had the more kudos you accrued, although nine yards seems generous even for a fop. Another commonly repeated explanation comes from the exquisitely smart uniforms of the 99th Lanarkshire Regiment of Foot , which was raised in The problem with these explanations is that they come with no evidence to support them, apart from a reference to the number nine or 99, which seems to be stretching the cloth rather thinly. The regiment was in business in the early 19th century, which is at least the right sort of date for a phrase that became widely used in the middle of that century.
In his entry for the phrase 'to the nines' Fallows gives the example 'dressed up to the nines' and suggests that it "may perhaps" be derived from 'to thine eynes' - to the eyes. Follow us. Choose a dictionary. Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English. Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English. Grammar Thesaurus. Word Lists. Choose your language. My word lists. Matt Wiebe April 12, am. To the nines — the nine gods that ruled all ancient civilizations- perfection, the gods.
Rodney S. Yamin-Ali June 4, am.
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