"to the nines" meaning in English

See to the nines in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Etymology: From Scots, perhaps a rebracketing of to then eyne (“to the eyes”) or to thyn eyne (“(up) to your eyes”). Etymology templates: {{bor|en|sco|-}} Scots, {{rebracketing|en||nocap=1}} rebracketing Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} to the nines, {{en-PP}} to the nines
  1. To perfection; fully, wholly. Related terms: dressed to the nines
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        {
          "word": "dressed to the nines"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "all the way"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "from soup to nuts"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "in excelsis"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the backbone"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the bone"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the brim"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the core"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the fullest"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the full"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the gills"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the gunnels"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the hilt"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the max"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the nines"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the nth degree"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the tonsils"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the top of one's bent"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "top to bottom"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "up to eleven"
        }
      ]
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  "word": "to the nines"
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  "etymology_text": "From Scots, perhaps a rebracketing of to then eyne (“to the eyes”) or to thyn eyne (“(up) to your eyes”).",
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      "word": "dressed to the nines"
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      "glosses": [
        "To perfection; fully, wholly."
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          "word": "all the way"
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          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "from soup to nuts"
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          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "in excelsis"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the backbone"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the bone"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the brim"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the core"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the fullest"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the full"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the gills"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the gunnels"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the hilt"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the max"
        },
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          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the nines"
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          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the nth degree"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the tonsils"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "to the top of one's bent"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "top to bottom"
        },
        {
          "source": "Thesaurus:to the full",
          "word": "up to eleven"
        }
      ]
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  "word": "to the nines"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-07-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-07-01 using wiktextract (45c4a21 and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.