DictionaryAI

dress

SayDRES/dɹɛs//dɹes/

Pluraldresses

Verbdresses, dressing, dressed

32 meanings of dress

Practice

  1. 1
    women's garmentnouncountable
    A garment for women or girls that covers the upper body and includes a skirt extending below the waist.

    She bought a new dress for the wedding.

    The dress had long sleeves and a flowing skirt.

    UsageA dress usually means a woman's or girl's garment; formal dress, with no article, means formal clothing for people of any gender.

    Similarfrock, gown

  2. 2
    verbfigurativelyreflexivetransitive
    To put clothes on oneself, another person, or a doll or mannequin.

    Nurses dress patients who cannot manage on their own.

    He dressed the mannequin in the shop window.

    UsageFor your own clothes, get dressed is most common; you dress a child or doll in something.

    Similarclothe

    Oppositeundress, strip, disrobe

    Note

    Clothing a body once included arming it, since armor counted as dress. The verb could also clothe a face in a quality or mood, as when Henry More, in his Platonic poem of 1642, has faces "ydrest" with love and vigor.

  3. 3
    clothing stylenoununcountable
    Clothing or apparel, especially that which is appropriate for a particular occasion, profession, or setting.

    Guests arrived in elegant evening dress.

    Military dress varies according to rank and ceremony.

    UsageUsually with no article and a describing word: formal dress, evening dress, military dress.

    Similarattire, clothing, garb, wear, apparel

  4. 4
    verbfigurativelyreflexivetransitive
    To clothe oneself or another person in a particular style, or in a way that suits a particular occasion.

    For the job interview, he dressed in a plain navy suit and polished black shoes.

    Parents often dress their kids in formal outfits for weddings.

    UsageYou dress in black or a suit, dress for an interview, and dress up for something special.

    Similarclothe, outfit

  5. 5
    add sauceverbtransitive
    To prepare food for cooking or eating by seasoning it, or to add a dressing or sauce to it, especially a salad.

    The chef dressed the salad with a light vinaigrette.

    Cooks usually dress the leaves just before serving to keep them crisp.

    UsageYou dress a salad with oil, lemon or another dressing.

    Similartoss, season, flavor

    Note

    Cooking once meant dressing whole meals. George Peele's The Old Wives' Tale asks who 'drest his dinner', Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew has meat dressed by hand, and Milton's Phillis dresses country messes. The salad use, now the familiar one, is already in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813), where two girls are 'dressing a sallad and cucumber'.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • Dress formerly meant preparing whole meals. archive.org
    • George Peele wrote The Old Wives' Tale, in which Frolic asks who dressed the king's dinner. archive.org
    • Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew contains a reference to personally preparing meat; Petruchio speaks the line. shakespeare.mit.edu
    • Milton describes Phillis preparing country dishes in L'Allegro. gutenberg.org
    • Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice, first published in 1813. janeaustens.house
    • The narrator of Pride and Prejudice describes two girls dressing a salad and cucumber, using the quoted spelling. en.wikisource.org
  6. 6
    verbintransitive
    Of an athlete: to put on the uniform and equipment required to take part in a sporting contest.

    Three rookies dressed for their first professional match.

    Players who fail a fitness test cannot dress for the game.

    UsageUsually dress for the game, and often negative: a player who did not dress sat out.

    Note

    Sports reporting uses it to mark who is available on game day. A player who 'did not dress for the game' sat out, perhaps because of a sprained ankle.

  7. 7
    verbfigurativelytransitive
    To decorate or arrange something to improve its appearance, such as a street, a shop window display, or a stage or film set.

    The town dresses its main street with flags and banners every Fourth of July.

    Florists dress the altar before every ceremony.

    UsageYou dress a street or hall with flags or flowers; figurative use often runs dress something in a style.

    Similardecorate, adorn, deck, trim

    Note

    Froude's Thomas Carlyle (1882) wishes Jeffrey had dressed his censures in a kinder form. In 'Silver Bells' (1950), city sidewalks are dressed in holiday style. The construction lets ornament stand for tone, and it sits behind the noun for outward guise.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

  8. 8
    final rehearsalnouncountable or uncountableabbreviationellipsis
    Short for dress rehearsal: a full practice of a show, usually in costume and often the last practice before opening.

    Opening is tomorrow, but dress went smoothly last night.

    The cast ran a complete dress before the critics arrived.

    UsageOften used without an article in theater talk: dress went well, we have dress tonight.

    Note

    The full term can mean a run-through in costume or simply the final rehearsal, costumes or not. The clipped form therefore names a fixed point in the production schedule more than a wardrobe check.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Dress rehearsal can mean the final rehearsal whether or not costumes are worn. en.wiktionary.org
  9. 9
    in dragverbslangintransitiveabbreviationellipsis
    Short for cross-dress: to wear clothing usually associated with the other sex.

    Among close friends, he likes to dress, slipping into a gown and heels for the evening.

    Long before he came out to his friends, he would dress at home on weekends, trying on his sister's old skirts and heels.

    UsageIn neutral writing cross-dress is clearer, since this form looks like the everyday verb.

    Note

    A slang clipping of cross-dress, used without an object: someone who dresses in this sense wears clothes associated with the other sex. It looks identical to the everyday 'put on clothes' verb, so it depends entirely on context and a listener who shares the usage.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of dress apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

The verb comes from Middle English dressen or dresse ('to arrange, put in order'), which came via Anglo-Norman and Old French dresser or drecier from Late Latin *directiare ('to guide, direct'). It is a doublet of direct, and the noun is derived from the verb.

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

  • The verb descends from Middle English dressen or dresse, meaning to arrange or put in order, through Anglo-Norman and Old French dresser or drecier, from reconstructed Late Latin directiare, meaning to guide or direct. en.wiktionary.org
  • Dress and direct share the Latin ancestor directus through different routes, supporting their classification as doublets. en.wiktionary.org
  • The noun derives from the verb. en.wiktionary.org