dandy

noun

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dan·dy | \ ˈdan-dē

plural dandies

Definition of dandy

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : a man who gives exaggerated attention to personal appearance

2 : something excellent in its class a dandy of a game

dandy

adjective

dandier; dandiest

Definition of dandy (Entry 2 of 2)

1 : of, relating to, or suggestive of a man who gives exaggerated attention to personal appearance : foppish

2 : very good : first-rate a dandy place to stay I have a couple of friends … who think a recession is a dandy time to try to discover better and cheaper ways to do things.— Thomas Friedman

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Examples of dandy in a Sentence

Noun That was a dandy of a game. that dandy was willing to spend all day and hundreds of dollars just to get the perfect pair of shoes Adjective We thought something was wrong, but he said everything was just fine and dandy. that's a dandy new racing bike

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun There are other solid dancing performances, too; Luca De-Poli and Joshua Stayton and the corps de ballet, who are called into service as everything from Munchkins and dancing bricks to dandies and Popcorn Girls who enliven the Emerald City streets. — Cincinnati.com, "Onstage tornadoes, flying monkeys, dancing poppies: 'Wizard of Oz' ballet is 'spectacular'," 26 Oct. 2019 The first large Baignoire was a model for men, for dandies. — Jill Newman, Town & Country, "Why Grand Duchess Vladimir, a Long-Gone Romanov, Continues to Inspire Cartier's Watch Designs," 1 Oct. 2019 Wu’s pink knit cardigan and matching T-shirt were a striking combination that stood out even among the season’s front row dandies. — Vogue, "Kris Wu Makes the Case for Granny Chic at Louis Vuitton," 20 June 2019 Men wore leopard print, too: The late-18th-century British macaroni dandies, as in Yankee Doodle, were fond of it. — Nancy Macdonell, WSJ, "Is Leopard Print Tacky or Classic? A Historical Debate," 18 Sep. 2018 In a way, this is throwback style: During the Renaissance, lace shirts were a staple for male dandies, and pink was a masculine color in the 1920s well before Barbie took it over. — Jacob Gallagher, WSJ, "Who Needs Gender? Why Men and Women Are Dressing Identically," 21 Feb. 2019 Young people of color, young Asian men who are wildly open to the avant-garde, new dandies who refuse to be stereotyped as belonging to any class—the entire choir of voices who are infinitely expanding the sense of what gender identity is. — Vogue, "Vogue Runway’s Critics Weigh In on the Fall 2019 Menswear Collections—And the Seismic Shifts Changing the Business," 22 Jan. 2019 The beard is the most common accessory, often a graying one: These dandies range in age from early 20s to 60s and beyond. — Jacob Gallagher, WSJ, "Inside the Bizarre Life of a Male Street-Style Star," 14 Jan. 2019 Aristocratic Italians, meanwhile, adopted the idea of sprezzatura, or studied nonchalance that became the attitude favored by the influential taste-making dandies of early 19th century England. — Hamish Bowles, Vogue, "The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Presents “Camp: Notes on Fashion” For Its Spring 2019 Exhibition," 9 Oct. 2018 Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective In Bondy’s win, the Lady Patriots overcame a dandy game by Southmore’s Alazay Olivares, who scored all 16 of Southmore’s points, to guarantee a spot against South Houston on Thursday at 4:30. — Robert Avery, Houston Chronicle, "Intermediate school postseason tourneys head for semifinals, finals Thursday," 15 Jan. 2020 Eliot drew the book’s cover illustration: a dandy helping a line of cats climb over a wall. — Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker, "The Improbable Insanity of “Cats”," 16 Dec. 2019 Fine, not dandy The judges dismissed the companies’ arguments that licence fees should be levied on licensed activity alone. — The Economist, "Fault on the line A price war has undermined India’s big telecoms companies," 12 Dec. 2019 Healthy communication is fine and dandy, but so is a self-help book, an oversized robe, or one of the other recommendations in this list. — Wired, "15 Passive-Aggressive Gifts for Your Terrible Roommate," 3 Dec. 2019 Subtract Patricio’s dandy third period and that 6-1 advantage at the line would have done some serious damage. — Robert Avery, Houston Chronicle, "Patricio’s bountiful third period carries Lady Texans past La Marque," 27 Nov. 2019 Joshua Dela Cruz, 30, bounced around an empty stage in a striped shirt (blue, not the original host’s signature green), strumming his handy dandy guitar. — Katrina Onstad, New York Times, "‘Blue’s Clues’ Returns, and Silence Is Still the Star," 6 Nov. 2019 Trask-tastic Florida’s new starting quarterback, Kyle Trask, had a dandy afternoon. — Ross Dellenger, SI.com, "The Rundown: Week 4 Star Performances, Weird Moments and a New Top 10," 22 Sep. 2019 The entirety of the design team is female, too, with set designer Paige Hathaway constructing a smart, verdant suburban patio and costume designer Alison Samantha Johnson outfitting the actresses in dandy bourgeois style. — Peter Marks, Washington Post, "Four fine actresses bring order to a world undergoing climate change in Signature’s ‘Escaped Alone’," 7 Oct. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'dandy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.