Definition of "white-tie" [white-tie]

• Very formal; usually requiring a tailcoat for men. (adjective)

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• "The shop recently supplied the black- and white-tie shirts for Hugh Bonneville's character Robert, Earl of Grantham, in the television series "Downton Abbey.""
• "The typically stiff white-tie crowd erupted in cheers when wheelchair-bound Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer, partially paralyzed by a stroke two decades ago, received the Nobel Prize in literature."
• "They escorted her to the annual Master of Foxhounds Ball in New York, the white-tie dances for hunt clubs."