dressing

Pluraldressings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A sauce, especially a cold one, used to flavor salads.

   The chef whisked oil and vinegar into a light dressing.

   A good Caesar dressing balances garlic, anchovy, and lemon.

   Similarsauce

   Note

   Salad dressings are usually named by style or by a nation: blue cheese, ranch, French, Russian, Italian, creamy Italian. Gabrielle Hamilton runs through exactly that list in "A Salad So Good You Can Eat It for Breakfast" (2021). Most dressings pair an acid such as vinegar or citrus with oil, either as a thin vinaigrette or a thicker emulsion. With the article it counts (a dressing); as a substance it does not (too much dressing).

2. 2
   nouncountable

   Material applied to a wound to protect it or aid healing.

   The paramedic applied a sterile dressing to stop the bleeding.

   Surgeons changed the dressing twice to monitor the healing incision.

   Similarbandage, compress, gauze, pad

   Note

   The medical sense, built like most of its neighbors from Middle English dress plus -ing. It counts easily: a nurse applies, changes or removes a dressing, and a ward stocks dressings. The materials run from plain gauze to hydrocolloid and alginate products chosen for the wound. Robert Barr's Lord Stranleigh Abroad (1913) has a woman returning "with dressings and a sponge."

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A seasoned mixture of bread or grain used to stuff poultry, pork, and similar meats.

   She baked the dressing in a separate dish alongside the roast chicken.

   The recipe calls for plenty of sage and onion in the dressing.

   Similarforcemeat

   Note

   A cook's word with two lives. This one is packed into a bird or a joint, while the salad sauce is poured over leaves, and the dish on the table usually tells you which is meant. Its older, more technical synonym is forcemeat. That word suits finely chopped meat fillings better than the bread-and-herb mixtures most people picture.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The everyday activity of getting dressed and putting on one's clothing.

   After the surgery, dressing became a slow and painful task.

   Occupational therapists help patients relearn dressing after a stroke.

   Oppositeundressing

   Note

   The everyday act usually goes uncounted, as in help with dressing. It can also count single occasions, and then it pairs naturally with its opposite. Kathryn Banks and Joseph Harris, in Exposure: Revealing Bodies, Unveiling Representations (2004), write of Monsieur Jourdain's "repeated dressings and undressings." In that phrase the plural turns a routine into a performance.

5. 5
   verb

   Present participle of dress.

   The nurse is dressing the wound with fresh gauze.

   They were dressing the stage before the performance began.

   Note

   The -ing form of the verb does double duty. It is a participle in "she is dressing for dinner" and a gerund in "dressing a shop window takes skill." Every sense of dress passes through it: clothing someone, styling hair, adorning a room, setting out goods. The nouns spelled the same name things, so "a dressing" is an object, while "dressing a doll" is still an action.

6. 6
   nouncountable or uncountable

   Material added to soil as a fertilizer to improve its quality and nourish plants.

   Gardeners apply a spring dressing to replenish the soil's nutrients.

   A nitrogen-rich dressing boosted the crop's growth markedly.

   Similarfertilizer, manure, compost, mulch

7. 7
   nouncountable or uncountable

   Ornamental work used to finish a building, for example the molding that frames a door or window or decorates a ceiling.

   The restored facade featured elaborate stone dressing around each window.

   Decorative dressings outlined the doorways of the Georgian townhouse.

   Similarmolding, trim, surround, ornamentation

8. 8
   nouncountable or uncountable

   Gum, starch, or similar substances used to stiffen or finish silk, linen, and other fabrics.

   Weavers washed out the dressing to leave the silk soft and supple.

   A heavy dressing made the new linen feel stiff and glossy.

   Similarsize, sizing, starch, finish

9. 9
   noundialectalMainecountable

   Manure spread over a garden to enrich the soil and nourish the plants.

   Every fall he digs a generous dressing of horse manure into the borders.

   A dressing of well-rotted manure kept the garden plot fertile.

   Similarmanure, fertilizer, compost, mulch

   Note

   A Maine usage that narrows the general soil-improving sense to one material: manure. To a Maine gardener, putting dressing on the garden means spreading muck, not a bagged fertilizer. Outside that region, listeners may hear only the broader meaning.

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