I'm confused by a word. Who can help me figure it out?

Question

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/15/business/media/15adco.html?ex=1329195600en=c045bad9ce514593ei=5090partner=rssuse
Please click this website, and I'm eager to know what does"A New Camel Brand Is Dressed to the Nines " mean.
Does "nines" mean gorgeously because of its similiar pronunciation with "nice"? Or, it has other meanings?

Answer 1

It means dressed flamboyantly or smartly -- in other words, making an impression. This link will tell you more. http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/dressed-to-the-nines.html

Answer 2

There are at least half a dozen theories about this one. What we do know is that the phrase is first recorded in the late eighteenth century in poems by Robert Burns.

One very persistent theory is that the British Army’s 99th Regiment of Foot were renowned for their smartness, so much so that the other regiments based with them at Aldershot were constantly trying to emulate them — to equal “the nines”. The big problem with this theory is that the story dates from the 1850s, and the phrase is older.

Other attempts at explanation connect it with the nine Muses, or with the mystic number nine, or even perhaps reaching a standard of nine on a scale of one to ten — not perfect, but doing very well.

Walter Skeat (the editor of the Oxford Etymological Dictionary and the first secretary of the English Dialect Society) once proposed that it could originally have been “dressed to the eyes”, which in medieval English would have been “to then eyne”; the phrase could afterwards have mutated by the same principle that caused “a norange” to change to “an orange”. But the reverse problem of dating arises here, in that if it were truly medieval in origin one would expect examples to have turned up before Burns’ time. As a result, that suggestion is now not accepted by anybody.

Short answer: nobody knows.

Answer 3

Yes, it means 'dressed very well'. Could be even overdressed, but I doubt that was the meaning in this context. My guess is nice taste? Or cute pack?

see below

idiom:
to the nines.

To the highest degree: dressed to the nines.

[Middle English, from Old English nigon.]

Answer 4

Well, the quote that you're asking about is a new cigarette by Camel called No. 9

Dressed to the Nines is a figure of speech meaning all dressed up.
You can find the history of that saying here: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/dressed-to-the-nines.html

Answer 5

Dressed to the nines means dressed in fancy or formal clothing.

Answer 6

They are aiming it at female smokers! To the nines suggests links with Chanel NINEteen, that song Love Potion No 9, etc etc. Hot pink packaging as well!

Answer 7

i think it means smartly coz dressed to the nines might mean evening/formal clothes

Answer 8

It means being dressed in your best fancy or formal or everyday clothing. As long as it is the best you have.

Answer 9

"Dressed to the nines" means fashionably and/or elaborately dressed.

Answer 10

In full dress; to the maximum