Green’s Dictionary of Slang

dolled up adj.

dressed up, esp. for a night out.

1870		Morn. Advertiser (London) 17 June 3/6: Why, Sir, it is usual thing to see respectable mechanics’ wives and daughters going to purchase half pound of butter dolled up in a dress that formerly would only have been worn by them on going to a party.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 20 July 1/4: ‘Hello,’ said Early Bird to a friend in the beer jerking industry, ‘what’s the matter that you’re dolled up in your Sunday suit?’.
1896		Windsor Mag. 16 293/2: ‘It’s an awful fag coming down here all dolled up, isn’t it?’ he said. ‘But, bless you, these old devils are so blind they wouldn’t notice you if you came in your pyjamas!’.
1905		A. Binstead Mop Fair 208: More likely to be entrapped when dolled up and out for the evening.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Nov. 14/1: Girl I should have taken / (Nicely dollied up) / Goin’ with another / Chap to see the Cup!
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Speedy Sprite’ in Ade’s Fables 30: When she appeared at the Sorority Tiffin at 1 P. M. she was dolled for fair.
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 129: Nothing to do but [...] set around with the other performers, all dolled up like regular spenders.
1920		F.S. Fitzgerald ‘The Jelly Bean’ in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald V (1963) 205: She’s all dolled up to a fare-you-well to-night.
1925		S. Lewis Arrowsmith 459: I’ll be there, dolled up like a new saloon.
1934		R. Chandler ‘Finger Man’ in Pearls Are a Nuisance (1964) 73: A dolled-up sedan was parked in front of the drugstore.
1936		‘George Orwell’ Keep The Aspidistra Flying (1962) 30: ‘So that’s why you’re all dolled up, is it?’ [...] ‘You bet it is, chappie! Coo, what a peach!’.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 180: If I don’t come back with that dolled-up barsted too, you better take to the bush — where you belong.
1943		Mass-Observation Report on Juvenile Drinking 11: A few girls of 17–18 present, all dolled up, but though they are looking all around them, and while they have ample opportunity to pick up fellows [...] they don’t.
1951		J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye (1958) 96: I knew I didn’t have to get all dolled up for a prostitute or anything, but it sort of gave me something to do.
1960		J.R. Ackerley We Think The World Of You (1971) 110: She was all dolled up [...] She was wearing a two-piece costume.
1960		J. Havoc Early Havoc 12: ‘And Company’ was dolled to the brim [...] bows everywhere and beading on her eyelashes.
1971		B. Malamud Tenants (1972) 39: He was dolled up in hip-hugging yellow pants and two-tone brown-and-black shoes.
1980		M. Bail Homesickness (1999) 322: They love getting dolled up.
1991		R. Doyle Van (1998) 577: Their carriage was full of dolled-up young ones.
2001		K. Waterhouse Soho 142: The way they were dolled up [...] you could never have told they were all blokes.
2012		J. Díaz This Is How You Lose Her 110: Pura [...] got herself dolled up for these visits.
2015		I. Welsh Decent Ride 313: She looks different, posher, mair sophisticated [...] dolled up.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 219: [T]he dolled-up biker hunched in pain.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 106: [S]enile couples, dolled-up corpses, widowers and spinsters.

In phrases

all dolled up like a barber’s cat [doll n.¹ (5); why the barber’s cat should be especially decorated is unknown]

(Can.) dressed in the height of fashion.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn).