Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A man's dress jacket, usually black with satin or grosgrain lapels, worn for formal or semiformal occasions.
  • noun A complete outfit including this jacket, trousers usually with a silken stripe down the side, a bow tie, and often a cummerbund.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as Tuxedo coat.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun United States A kind of black jacket for semiformal evening dress made without tails, usually of black or dark blue color and having satin or grosgrain facing on the lapels; -- so named after a fashionable country club at Tuxedo Park, New York.
  • noun The complete semiformal evening suit, including the tuxedo jacket, matching trousers, and black bow tie, and usually including a cummerbund; -- the style of shirt worn with this suit varies, and the outfit may include a dickey.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A typically black formal jacket worn by men
  • noun The entire suit complementing and including this jacket

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun semiformal evening dress for men

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for Tuxedo coat, after a country club at Tuxedo, Park, a village of southeast New York.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Tuxedo Park, New York, USA, where the fashion is often said to have originated.

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Examples

  • Of course, these days practically everyone uses the term tuxedo, both in the U.S. and across the pond.

    Off With Their Coattails Jamie Johnson 2011

  • Curiously, few even know what the word "tuxedo" means anymore.

    Off With Their Coattails Jamie Johnson 2011

  • And the miracles we hope and believe are just about to occur: Graham the pit bull; Rocky the beagle; a 3-month-old and cuter than should be legal American bulldog named Hazel; 7-year-old yellow lab sisters Stella and Fuoco; brother white bunnies with black ears and noses, Charlie and Oliver; a gorgeous green-eyed, long-haired red tabby named Janis; a calico kitty unimaginatively named Kitty but, hey, you can change the name; and a remarkable number of black-and-white or what we call tuxedo cats of all sizes and ages.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Ken White 2012

  • And the miracles we hope and believe are just about to occur: Graham the pit bull; Rocky the beagle; a 3-month-old and cuter than should be legal American bulldog named Hazel; 7-year-old yellow lab sisters Stella and Fuoco; brother white bunnies with black ears and noses, Charlie and Oliver; a gorgeous green-eyed, long-haired red tabby named Janis; a calico kitty unimaginatively named Kitty but, hey, you can change the name; and a remarkable number of black-and-white or what we call tuxedo cats of all sizes and ages.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Ken White 2012

  • Ford previously told its dealers it stopped taking orders for F-150 pick up trucks and other models in the color it calls "tuxedo black."

    Pigment Shortage Hits Auto Makers Neal E. Boudette 2011

  • But "let me be clear" a pig in a tuxedo, is still a pig no matter how hard you squint.

    President's Science Advisor Talks About NASA - NASA Watch 2009

  • The first time I heard Intelligent Design, even as a Christian, I thought along the lines of "creationism in tuxedo".

    Confirmation Bias and ID 2006

  • The male members of the club followed his example, and the style soon spread to New York City, where it was dubbed the "tuxedo."

    The Seattle Times 2011

  • But significant questions linger, like when and where the coat was truly born, or even why it's called the tuxedo.

    Off With Their Coattails Jamie Johnson 2011

  • The first gentleman misinterpreted and told all of his friends that he saw a man wearing a jacket without coattails called a tuxedo, not from Tuxedo.

    Tuxedos and Tuxedo Park | Edwardian Promenade 2010

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