soup and fish

English

Etymology

From the first courses served at gala dinners, where formal dress is worn.

Noun

soup and fish (usually uncountable, plural soup and fishes)

1. (dated, slang) Men's formal white tie dress.
   • 1916 March 11, Charles E. Van Loan, “His Folks”, in Saturday Evening Post‎^[1]:

     Not a thing, you notice, about Elmer showing up in the soup and fish—the women thought that was all right. May Wilson even said that he looked well in the outfit.

   • 1933, Desmos of Delta Sigma Delta, volumes 39-40, page 173:

     Then the boys shake the moth-balls out of the “soup and fishes” and try to crowd 180-250 pounds of avoirdupois into 135-160 pound suits, trusting that twenty-year-old seams will stand the strain for one more night.

   • 1937, Marion Rolfe Johnson Deitrick, Tomorrow the Accolade, page 169:

     […] to not buy hundred-dollar official soup-and-fishes when officially recommended to do so […]

Alternative forms

• soup-and-fish