prosaic. doll yourself up

Of his Bond plots, Fleming, ever prosaic about his talent, said, “I extracted them from my wartime memories, dolled them up, attached a hero and a villain, and there was the book.”


prosaic Hide phonetics
adjective FORMAL
lacking interest, imagination and variety; boring:
If only she'd been called 'Camilla' or 'Flavia' instead of the prosaic 'Jane'.
He asked if I'd got my black eye in a fight - I told him the prosaic truth that I'd banged my head on a door.

doll yourself up phrasal verb [R] DISAPPROVING
If a woman dolls herself up, she tries to make herself more attractive by putting on make-up and special clothes:
I'm not going to doll myself up just to go to the shops.

dolled up Hide phonetics
adjective [after verb] INFORMAL
She spent two hours getting dolled up for the party.