fashionably late

comparative more fashionably late · superlative most fashionably late

1. idiomaticArriving behind time to an event which does not normally require one to be punctual.

   Three hours later—fashionably late, of course—the Stuart party swept in state into their box.

   1874, May Agnes Fleming, chapter V, in A Terrible Secret

   3 more examples

   Ex-Senator Blount's party of three was fashionably late at the function in Mesa Circle, but in the crush filling the spacious drawing-rooms the hostess and her long line of receiving assistants were still on duty.

   1913, Francis Lynde, chapter X, in The Honorable Senator Sage-Brush

   The sofa which she had counted on to hold four looked crowded with three[…] and when the Simpsons came, fashionably late (having only just finished dinner), they had to content themselves with the end of a holland-covered form hired from the baker.

   1917, O. Douglas [pseudonym; Anna Masterton Buchan], chapter II, in The Setons

   Well, she's fashionably lean / And she's fashionably late / She'll never rank a scene / She'll never break a date

   1967, “Twentieth Century Fox”, in The Doors, performed by The Doors

   Synonyms: casually late