# dresser

Pronunciation: US say "DRES-er" /ˈdɹɛsɚ/; UK say "DRES-uh" /ˈdɹɛsə/

## Noun

1. A piece of bedroom furniture resembling a low chest of drawers, often topped with a mirror. *(US)*
   - Simple: A piece of bedroom furniture with drawers for clothes, often with a mirror on top.
   - _The movers struggled to get the antique dresser up the narrow staircase._
   - _He emptied the dresser drawers into a suitcase the night before the move._
2. An item of kitchen furniture, typically a cabinet with open shelves above, used for storing dishes and utensils. *(UK)*
   - Simple: A tall kitchen cabinet with open shelves on top, used for storing plates and cups.
   - _The oak dresser in the farmhouse kitchen displayed three generations of china._
   - _She kept the serving spoons in the bottom drawer of the old pine dresser._
3. Someone described by the way they usually dress, as in a smart, sloppy, or flamboyant dresser.
   - Simple: A person who chooses and wears clothes in a certain way.
   - _Colleagues knew him as the snappiest dresser in the office._
   - _Even as a teenager she was a flamboyant dresser, mixing vintage scarves with combat boots._
4. A wardrobe assistant in theater, film, or television who helps performers into their costumes.
   - Simple: A person whose job is to help actors put on their costumes.
   - _Her dresser had ninety seconds to get her out of the ballgown and into the maid's uniform._
   - _The touring production hired local dressers at each venue to manage the quick changes._
5. A personal servant, especially to royalty, who assists with dressing and similar daily tasks.
   - Simple: A servant who helps a king, queen, or other important person get dressed.
   - _As the queen's dresser, she chose and cared for the royal wardrobe for thirty years._
   - _The duke's dresser was the only servant permitted in the private chambers before breakfast._
6. An assistant to a surgeon who helps with tasks such as dressing wounds.
   - Simple: A helper who works with a surgeon and takes care of patients' wounds.
   - _He spent a year as a dresser at the teaching hospital before qualifying._
   - _The dresser changed the bandages on the ward each morning before rounds._
7. A football hooligan who wears designer clothing; a member of the casual subculture. *(UK)*
   - Simple: A British football fan from a violent fan group who wears expensive designer clothes.
   - _By the mid-eighties, every firm had its dressers turning up in Italian sportswear and rare trainers._
   - _He was a dresser, more interested in his Stone Island jacket than in the match itself._
8. A worker who dresses stone, shaping and finishing rough blocks for use in building.
   - Simple: A worker who cuts and shapes stone to give it a smooth finish.
   - _The quarry employed a dresser to square the limestone blocks before shipment._
   - _Granite dust hung in the shed where the dressers worked their chisels._
9. A mechanical device used in ore mills for dressing ore, such as crushing, sorting, or sifting it.
   - Simple: A machine that breaks rock from a mine into pieces and sorts them.
   - _The mill installed a new dresser to separate the crushed ore by size._
   - _Steam power drove the dressers that pulverized the ore before smelting._
10. A mechanical device used in grain mills for bolting, sifting ground meal through cloth to separate flour from bran.
   - Simple: A machine in a flour mill that separates the fine flour from the rough parts of the grain.
   - _Ground meal passed from the millstones into the dresser, which sifted out the bran._
   - _The old water mill still has its original dresser with silk bolting cloth._
11. A kind of pick used for shaping large lumps of coal.
   - Simple: A heavy tool with a point, used for breaking large pieces of coal into shape.
   - _He trimmed the oversized lumps with a dresser before loading them into the tub._
   - _The dressers hung beside the shovels at the pithead._

## Noun

12. A table or bench on which meat and other foods are prepared for cooking or use. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A table or bench where meat and other food is prepared.
   - _The kitchen boy hauled the side of venison onto the dresser for the cook to joint._
   - _Knives, cleavers, and a worn wooden dresser furnished the back kitchen of the inn._

## Origin

**Meanings 1–2** — From Middle English dressure, dressor, or dressour, borrowed from Old French drecëur, which comes from the verb dresser.
**Meanings 3–12** — From Middle English dresser, formed from 'dress' plus the suffix '-er'.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/dresser (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).