four-in-hands

He wears the dark suits of the modern politician, but he boldly eschews the mundane red tie for more dynamic four-in-hands.

The undoing of flash, dash and dignity Robin Givhan 2010

Even for a gentleman splurging on four-in-hands by, say, Hermes or Charvet, that's an awful lot of neckwear.

Rod Blagojevich trial shows spending habits to which he was ill-suited 2010

In the roadway, handsome chaises, landaus, four-in-hands made room for bullock-teams, eight and ten strong; for tumbrils carrying water or refuse — or worse; for droves of cattle, mobs of wild colts bound for auction, flocks of sheep on their way to be boiled down for tallow.

Australia Felix 2003

In his youth his taste had run to loud ties, but now it seemed to have faded, like his vitality, and was expressed in pale-lilac four-in-hands and indeterminate gray collars.

Flappers and Philosophers 2003

Doctors have always worn them, because patients can't reach up and yank on them the way they could with the four-in-hands.

Bow Ties 1995

They wore charcoal-gray suits, with white shirts and maroon four-in-hands.

The Complete Stories Vol 1 Asimov, Isaac 1990

We had planned pleasant things in the future, and spoken confidently of our four-in-hands, our Summer cottages at Saratoga and Newport, of our town house, fine suppers and our boxes at the opera.

Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison Fifteen Years in Solitude Austin Bidwell

But though the faces were fair, merry, and pleasant to look upon, though the chariots and four-in-hands were gorgeous and bedecked, there was a woful lack of cavaliers to make those damask cheeks mantle with a blush, for they were away fighting in the North.

The Tory Maid Herbert Baird Stimpson

This was satisfactory; risking one's neck in a tandem was all very well -- a part of the regular course of an Oxford education; but amateur drivers of stage coaches I had always a prejudice against: let gentlemen keep their own four-in-hands, and upset themselves and families, as they have an undeniable right to do -- but not the public.

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 334, August 1843 Various

I need hardly say that for the next twenty years we had no boxes at the grand opera, no four-in-hands, nor yet any fine suppers, but all that which was merely external passed away, consumed in that fierce flame, but all that was manly and true remained; that is, our devotion and courage and our high resolve to conquer fate and live for better things.

Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison Fifteen Years in Solitude Austin Bidwell