Meaning & use
dapper looking man
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A man who looks neat, stylish, and well dressed.
Grammar: Countable: a dapper-looking man, two dapper-looking men.
Patterns
- a dapper-looking man in something
- a dapper-looking man with something
A dapper-looking man in a gray suit held the door open for us.
She pointed out a dapper-looking man with a silk tie and polished shoes.
The photograph showed a dapper-looking man standing beside an old car.
Word forms
| plural | dapper-looking men |
|---|
Common combinations
- dapper-looking man in a suit
- A dapper-looking man in a suit walked into the room.
- dapper-looking man with a hat
- The dapper-looking man with a hat tipped it politely.
- quite dapper-looking
- He was quite dapper-looking for a casual dinner.
Synonyms and how they differ
- smart
- Smart is a common British adjective for neat, tidy clothes; dapper is a little more old-fashioned and stylish.
- well-dressed
- Well-dressed simply means wearing good clothes; dapper adds a sense of sharp, careful style.
Opposites
Word family
- dapper adjective
- Neat and stylish in appearance, especially of a man.
- dapperly adverb
- In a neat and stylish way.
Commonly confused: dapper looking man or dapper?
dapper looking man vs dapper
Dapper is the adjective; dapper-looking is a compound adjective meaning 'appearing dapper'.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'dapper-looking man' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Option 0 uses the phrase naturally as a noun phrase for a man. Option 1 is awkward because 'with a suit' is redundant and unclear. Option 2 is wrong because a man is not clothing. Option 3 is wrong because you cannot wear a man.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “dapper looking man”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.