Example: New years eve is the one day of the year when people like to go out dressed to the nines.
Origin: Common lore has it that a tailor making a high quality suit uses more fabric. The best suits are made from nine yards of fabric. This may seem like a lot but a proper suit does indeed take nine yards of fabric. This is because a god suit has all the fabric cut in the same direction with the warp, or long strands of thread, parallel with the vertical line of the suit. This causes a great amount of waste in suit making, but if you want to go "dressed to the nines", you must pay for such waste.
Alternatively, The meaning is drawn from the phrase "the whole nine yards" which has come to mean a complete high quality job without cutting corners.
Alternatively, This saying originated in Shakespeare's time and is connected with the price a person had to pay for theater tickets depending on where their seats were located. The farthest seats were one pence and the ones closest to the stage were nine pence. If you sat in the expensive seats you would feel obliged to dress up so as not to look out of place with the other wealthy patrons.
Example: During the Ted Kazinski trial, the big question was not his guilt but if the jury would drop the hammer and call for the death penalty.
Origin: The "hammer" is the hammer of a gun. When the gun is cocked, the hammer has been pulled back. Pulling the trigger drops the hammer onto the cartridge, firing the gun. Popularized by the seemingly tireless stream of police dramas on television.
Example: Enough talk, let's put some food down the hatch.
Origin: Here's a drinking expression that seems to have its origins in sea freight, where cargoes are lowered into the hatch for transport below deck. The freight appears to be consumed by the ship.
Example: Building a house is a long ordeal. Just when you think you are down to the short strokes something unexpected comes up.
Origin: When a golfer begins at the tee, he hits the ball towards the green by driving, or using a long stroke. When the ball is on the green, he must get the ball in the hole by putting - or taking "short" strokes.
A painter (canvases not houses) begins on a clean canvas using large and broad strokes of the brush. As the painting progresses the brush strokes become shorter and finer as detail is filled into the painting.
