doll up

English

Etymology

Thought to be from Doll (short for Dorothy) rather than from doll.

Verb

doll up (third-person singular simple present dolls up, present participle dolling up, simple past and past participle dolled up)

1. (transitive, slang) To dress oneself or another in formal or ostentatious clothing as if for a special occasion.

   She's all dolled up with nowhere to go.

   • 1970, Noel Streatfeild, Thursday’s Child:

     Jem looked at her clothes. "You wouldn’t get far dolled up like that."

Translations

to dress oneself or another in formal or ostentatious clothing

• Dutch: optutten (nl)
• Finnish: pyntätä (fi), pynttäytyä (fi)
• German: sich schick machen
• Italian: essere tirato a lucido
• Portuguese: embonecar
• Spanish: emperifollar (es)