in all one's glory

English

Phrase

in all one's glory

1. (literal) In full splendour and power (e.g. of a deity or monarch).
   • 1872, William Chambers, Robert Chambers, Chamber's Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts, page 163:

     But, little by little, the blackness wanes into gray, the gray warms into crimson; long streaks of light shoot across the brightening sky, while the morning mists roll off like the smoke of a battle; till at last up rises the sun in all his glory, revealing the bare undulating moor with its thin herbge, the bold rocky ridge that bounds it to the right, the great dome of the Mount of Temptation in the background, and far away to the front, the long narrow line of grayish-white that marks the shore of the still hidden Dead Sea.

   • 1874, Picturesque Illustrations of the Bible, page 61:

     "We are told,” says Professor Balfour, “that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these lilies.

   • 1952, Nagendranath Gupta, Why India Lives, page 86:

     The North American Indian brave on the war path was as vain of his war paint and aureole of feathers as Beau Brummell in all his glory was vain of his clothes and his wig.

   • 1961, Pauline Arnold, Percival White, Clothes and Cloth: America's Apparel Business, page 25:

     True, the cowboy still remained, dressed in all his glory when he came off the range or hit town at the end of the long trail.

2. (informal, idiomatic, euphemistic) Completely naked.

   She quickly dressed for fear that someone would walk through the shower door and see her in all her glory.

   • 1990, Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations for 1991, page 387:

     The Olympic athlete wore no clothes, and those of us who have gone to the Eisenhower Theater remember that out in front on the mezzanine floor is the statue of the Greek god that was rescued from the depths of the ocean, and he's out there in all his glory in the nude.

   • 2010, Dermot Meagher, Judge Sentences: Tales from the Bench, page 110:

     She noticed R.D. passing by a few times, wearing less clothing each time until he was down to the sweats. She hadn't worried until his shirt came off. Then he slipped behind a pillar and came out in all his glory, ready to leap into the Bosporus, I assume.

   • 2011, Lisa Beth Darling, Child of War-A God Is Born, page 157:

     Alena asked, wanting him to strip naked and see him standing in all his glory under the hot afternoon sun, but thinking of Raven and modesty's sake perhaps it was best if Ares should find some type of bathing trunks.

   • 2012, Jackie Collins, Hollywood Divorces:

     'You said it,' she repeated, stepping out of her dress and standing before him in all her glory–naked except for a thin diamond chain around her waist, a rhinestone encrusted thong and Jimmy Choo stilettos.

   • 2015, Don Jordan, Michael Walsh, The King's Bed: Sex, Power and the Court of Charles II:

     In his bedchamber, he kept the portrait of the naked Nell hidden behind a secret panel on which was painted a staid Dutch landscape. By sliding back the panel, Charles could reveal Nell in all her glory.

Related terms

• in glory; in one's glory

Translations

See also

• butt naked