white tie

1. A white bow tie worn as a part of formal evening dress.

2. Formal evening wear, usually requiring a tailcoat for men and an evening gown for women. White tie is considered the most formal category of evening wear.

white′-tie′ adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

white tie

1. (Clothing & Fashion) a white bow tie worn as part of a man's formal evening dress

2. (Clothing & Fashion)

a. formal evening dress for men

b. (as modifier): a white-tie occasion.

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

white′ tie′

1. a white bow tie, worn with formal evening dress.

2. formal evening dress for men (disting. from black tie).

white′-tie′

adj.

requiring that male guests wear formal attire.

white tie

A white bow tie worn by men as part of formal evening dress.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	white tie - bow tie worn as part of a man's formal evening dress bow tie, bowtie, bow-tie - a man's tie that ties in a bow
	2.	white tie - formalwear consisting of full evening dress for men dress suit, full dress, tail coat, tailcoat, tails, white tie and tails evening clothes, evening dress, eveningwear, formalwear - attire to wear on formal occasions in the evening morning coat, swallowtail, swallow-tailed coat - a man's full-dress jacket with two long tapering tails at the back

References in classic literature ?

As my dazed faculties cleared I observed that the body was in evening dress; the overcoat thrown wide open revealed the dress-coat, the white tie, the broad expanse of shirt front pierced by the sword.

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A beardless youth, one of those society youths whom the old Prince Shtcherbatsky called "young bucks," in an exceedingly open waistcoat, straightening his white tie as he went, bowed to them, and after running by, came back to ask Kitty for a quadrille.

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The eldest wore the white tie, high waistcoat, and thin-brimmed hat of the regulation curate; the second was the normal undergraduate; the appearance of the third and youngest would hardly have been sufficient to characterize him; there was an uncribbed, uncabined aspect in his eyes and attire, implying that he had hardly as yet found the entrance to his professional groove.

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And now it was too late--there he was, and got up, too, in a dress coat and white tie, and Nastasia in the very humour to heap ridicule on him and his family circle; of this last fact, he felt quite persuaded.

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Professor Murray made several profound remarks to his white tie and to the water-carafe upon the table, with a humorous, twinkling aside to the silver candlestick upon his right.

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And there was a touch of foppery about him, in the enormous white tie and the much-cherished whiskers of the fifties, which was only redeemed by that other touch of devilry that he had shown me in the corridor.

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He was dressed in severely English fashion, from the cut of his white waistcoat to the admirable poise of his white tie. He smiled as he patted Coulson upon the shoulder.

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With an evening coat and a white tie, as you told me once, anybody, even a stock-broker, can gain a reputation for being civilized.

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He dressed entirely in black, with the exception of his white tie, and his funeral appearance was only mitigated by the slight line of red ribbon which passed almost imperceptibly through his button-hole, and appeared like a streak of blood traced with a delicate brush.

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His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and benevolent curiosity were such as Mr.

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Blunt had unbuttoned his shabby jacket, exposing a lot of starched shirt-front with the white tie under his dark shaved chin.

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had followed me into the room, elegant, fatal, correct and severe in a white tie and large shirt- front.