put on the dog

「フットボールの試合前などに駐車場で行う野外パーティ」（『プログレッシブ英和中辞典』小学館）をtailgate partyといい，ミシシッピ大学のそれは規模や盛り上がりという点で他のものとは一線を画します。
put on the dogは「金持ちのふりをする, 見栄をはる」（『プログレッシブ英和中辞典』同上）という意味で辞書には載っていますが，今回の記事によれば地元ミシシッピではover the top（度を超す）という意味で用いられるようです。「(標準語に対して)地方語, 土地言葉」（『プログレッシブ英和中辞典』同上）という意味のvernacularと共に押さえておこうと思います。（Koyamamoto）

Tailgating Goes Above and Beyond at the University of Mississippi
OXFORD, Miss. — Perhaps there isn’t a word for the ritualized pregame revelry on the University of Mississippi campus. “Tailgating” certainly does not do it justice. It might be a gathering of football fans before a game, but it hardly resembles those celebrated scenes in Green Bay and Kansas City, which are modest by comparison.
For one, there are the $71,000 portable toilets. And then there’s this fall’s $750,000 university budget for the quintessentially Southern marvel known as the Grove. The price tags, and the orchestration, just keep getting grander.
“We want to put on the dog here,” one fan said, using regional vernacular for “over the top.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/01/sports/ncaafootball/tailgating-goes-above-and-beyond-at-the-university-of-mississippi.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0