dresses

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of dress.

   The bride tried on several dresses before choosing one.

   Vintage dresses from the 1950s sold quickly at the market.

   Note

   The plural belongs to the countable uses of dress. It covers separate garments, as in several dresses, and the run-throughs in costume that theater people shorten from dress rehearsal. When dress means clothing in general, as in formal dress, it stays uncountable and takes no plural. The -es ending, needed after -ss, is shared with the verb form, so only context separates "the dresses" from "she dresses."

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of dress.

   The nanny dresses the children before breakfast each day.

   Whenever the weather turns cold, he dresses in layers.

   Note

   A verb form with an unusually wide reach: the same dresses covers a parent clothing a child, a stylist arranging someone's hair, and a retailer setting out a shop window. With people it works transitively (she dresses the children) or reflexively (she dresses herself). It can also drop the object entirely (he dresses for dinner). Older English stretched it further still, to putting on armor.

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