cross-dress
Formscross-dresses, cross-dressing, cross-dressed
- 1To put on and wear clothing that is conventionally associated with the other sex.
Many performers in cabaret cross-dress as part of their act.
She cross-dressed convincingly for the masquerade ball.
- 2For a dendritic cell to display on its surface antigens that were produced by a different cell.
Dendritic cells cross-dress by picking up antigens from neighboring infected cells.
In the experiment, the dendritic cells cross-dressed using molecules shed by tumor cells.
Note
An immunologist's borrowing of the clothing sense: the dendritic cell is pictured in another cell's outfit. Brian P. Dolan and colleagues spelled the image out in 2006. Such cells "are wearing peptide-MHC complexes generated by other cells." The verb sits comfortably in the passive or as a participle adjective (dendritic cells cross-dressed with peptide-MHC complexes). In that form it names the state the cell is in rather than something it does.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of cross-dress apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
Formed by combining the prefix "cross-" with "dress."