Male figure conspicuous for tasteful fastidiousness, particularly in dress. The famous Regency dandy George (“Beau”) Brummell (1778–1840) helped to give literary currency to the figure of the dandy, particularly in England and France, providing a model and symbol of the triumph of style for the Francophile Oscar Wilde and for 19th-century French writers such as Charles Baudelaire, J K Huysmans, and the extravagantly romantic novelist and critic Jules-Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly (1808–1889), biographer of Brummell.

ETYM Cf. French dandin, ninny, silly fellow, dandiner to waddle, to play the fool; prob. allied to Eng. dandle.
A man who is much concerned with his dress and appearance (especially in the late nineteenth century); SYN. dude, fop, gallant, sheik, beau, swell, fashion plate, clotheshorse.