fop

fop n Fop, dandy, beau, coxcomb, exquisite, dude, buck are comparable when denoting a man who is conspicuously fashionable or elegant in dress or manners.

Fop is applied to a man who is preposterously concerned with fashionableness, elegance, and refinement not only in respect to dress and manners but in respect to such matters as literary or artistic taste

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his tightened waist, his stiff stock . . . denoted the military fop— Disraeli

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I might have taken him for a fop, for he wore white lace at throat and wrists— Kenneth Roberts

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his love of good clothes and good living gave Bennett a reputation as a fop— Time

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Dandy carries a weaker implication of affectation and overrefinement than fop and a stronger suggestion of concern for stylish or striking apparel and a spruce or dapper appearance

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that he had the tastes of a dandy, we learn from a letter of the time describing his "smart white hat, kid gloves, brown frock coat, yellow cassimere waistcoat, gray duck trousers, and blue silk handkerchief carelessly secured in front by a silver pin"— Walsh

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this character, one of the most comical in Stendhal, should . . . figure very high, in the list of his dandies. He never smiles, never thinks, and belongs to the Jockey Club— Girard

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Beau suggests as much attention to details of personal appearance as does fop

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a beau is one who, with the nicest care, in parted locks divides his curling hair; one who with balm and cinnamon smells sweet— Elton

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Coxcomb, like fop, is applicable to a beau as a term of contempt; it often stresses fatuousness and pretentiousness as much as or more than foppishness

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of all the fools that pride can boast, a coxcomb claims distinction most— Gay

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the young coxcombs of the Life Guards— Emerson

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Exquisite is a somewhat old-fashioned designation of a dandy who manifests the extreme delicacy and refinement of taste characteristic of a fop

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the particular styles. . . he affected had their marked influence on the young exquisites of the Mayfair balls and Pall Mall club windows— Wilde

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Dude applies chiefly to a man who makes himself conspicuously different in dress or manners from the ordinary man; it is therefore the rough man's term for the carefully dressed and groomed man, the quiet gentleman's term for the obvious dandy, or a Western American's term for an Easterner or a city-bred man

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her father told her he would not allow her to marry a dude

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the boys jeer at every young man wearing a high hat and call him a dude

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they were all mountain-wise, range-broken men, picked ... for diplomacy in handling dudes— Scribner's Mag.

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the dudes ogled the ladies, stroking their mustaches, adjusting their ties and scooting their shoe toes up their calves to restore the shine— Berrigan

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Buck applies usually to a dashing fellow, a dandy in dress, but not conspicuously, or necessarily, a gentleman in manners

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the dashing young buck, driving his own equipage— Irving

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I remember you a buck of bucks when that coat first came out to Calcutta— Thackeray

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