an outer garment for women and girls, consisting of bodice and skirt in one piece.
2.
clothing; apparel; garb: The dress of the 18th century was colorful.
3.
formal attire.
4.
a particular form of appearance; guise.
5.
outer covering, as the plumage of birds.
–adjective
6.
of or for a dress or dresses.
7.
of or for a formal occasion.
8.
requiring formal dress.
–verb (used with object)
9.
to put clothing upon.
10.
to put formal or evening clothes on.
11.
to trim; ornament; adorn: to dress a store window; to dress a Christmas tree.
12.
to design clothing for or sell clothes to.
13.
to comb out and do up (hair).
14.
to cut up, trim, and remove the skin, feathers, viscera, etc., from (an animal, meat, fowl, or flesh of a fowl) for market or for cooking (often fol. by out when referring to a large animal): We dressed three chickens for the dinner. He dressed out the deer when he got back to camp.
15.
to prepare (skins, fabrics, timber, stone, ore, etc.) by special processes.
16.
to apply medication or a dressing to (a wound or sore).
17.
to make straight; bring (troops) into line: to dress ranks.
18.
to make (stone, wood, or other building material) smooth.
19.
to cultivate (land, fields, etc.).
20.
Theater. to arrange (a stage) by effective placement of properties, scenery, actors, etc.
21.
to ornament (a vessel) with ensigns, house flags, code flags, etc.: The bark was dressed with masthead flags only.
22.
Angling.
a.
to prepare or bait (a fishhook) for use.
b.
to prepare (bait, esp. an artificial fly) for use.
23.
Printing. to fit (furniture) around and between pages in a chase prior to locking it up.
24.
to supply with accessories, optional features, etc.: to have one's new car fully dressed.
–verb (used without object)
25.
to clothe or attire oneself; put on one's clothes: Wake up and dress, now!
26.
to put on or wear formal or fancy clothes: to dress for dinner.
27.
to come into line, as troops.
28.
to align oneself with the next soldier, marcher, dancer, etc., in line.
—Verb phrases
29.
dress down,
a.
to reprimand; scold.
b.
to thrash; beat.
c.
to dress informally or less formally: to dress down for the shipboard luau.
30.
dress up,
a.
to put on one's best or fanciest clothing; dress relatively formally: They were dressed up for the Easter parade.
b.
to dress in costume or in another person's clothes: to dress up in Victorian clothing; to dress up as Marie Antoinette.
c.
to embellish or disguise, esp. in order to make more appealing or acceptable: to dress up the facts with colorful details.
—Idiom
31.
dress ship,
a.
to decorate a ship by hoisting lines of flags running its full length.
b.
U.S. Navy. to display the national ensigns at each masthead and a larger ensign on the flagstaff.
[Origin: 1275–1325; ME dressen < AF dresser, dresc(i)er, to arrange, prepare, OF drecier < VL *dīréctiāre, deriv. of L dīréctusdirect; n. use of v. in sense “attire” from ca. 1600]
—Synonyms 1. frock. Dress,costume,gown refer to garments for women. Dress is the general term for a garment: a black dress. Costume is used of the style of dress appropriate to some occasion, purpose, period, or character, esp. as used on the stage, at balls, at court, or the like, and may apply to men's garments as well: an 18th-century costume. Gown is usually applied to a dress more expensive and elegant than the ordinary, usually long, to be worn on a special occasion: a wedding gown. 2. raiment, attire, clothes, habit, garments, vestments, habiliments. 9. clothe, robe, garb.
Dress\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dressedor Drest; p. pr. & vb. n. Dressing.] [OF. drecier to make straight, raise, set up, prepare, arrange, F. dresser. (assumed) LL. directiare, fr. L. dirigere, directum, to direct; dis- + regere to rule. See Right, and cf. Address, Adroit, Direct, Dirge.]1. To direct; to put right or straight; to regulate; to order. [Obs.] At all times thou shalt bless God and pray Him to dress thy ways. --Chaucer. Note: Dress is used reflexively in Old English, in sense of "to direct one's step; to address one's self." To Grisild again will I me dresse. --Chaucer. 2. (Mil.) To arrange in exact continuity of line, as soldiers; commonly to adjust to a straight line and at proper distance; to align; as, to dress the ranks. 3. (Med.) To treat methodically with remedies, bandages, or curative appliances, as a sore, an ulcer, a wound, or a wounded or diseased part. 4. To adjust; to put in good order; to arrange; specifically: (a) To prepare for use; to fit for any use; to render suitable for an intended purpose; to get ready; as, to dress a slain animal; to dress meat; to dress leather or cloth; to dress or trim a lamp; to dress a garden; to dress a horse, by currying and rubbing; to dress grain, by cleansing it; in mining and metallurgy, to dress ores, by sorting and separating them. And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it. --Gen. ii. 15. When he dresseth the lamps he shall burn incense. --Ex. xxx. 7. Three hundred horses . . . smoothly dressed. --Dryden. Dressing their hair with the white sea flower. --Tennyson. If he felt obliged to expostulate, he might have dressed his censures in a kinder form. --Carlyle. (b) To cut to proper dimensions, or give proper shape to, as to a tool by hammering; also, to smooth or finish. (c) To put in proper condition by appareling, as the body; to put clothes upon; to apparel; to invest with garments or rich decorations; to clothe; to deck. Dressed myself in such humility. -- Shak. Prove that ever Idress myself handsome till thy return. --Shak. (d) To break and train for use, as a horse or other animal. To dress up or out, to dress elaborately, artificially, or pompously. "You see very often a king of England or France dressed up like a Julius C[ae]sar." --Addison. To dress a ship (Naut.), to ornament her by hoisting the national colors at the peak and mastheads, and setting the jack forward; when dressed full, the signal flags and pennants are added. --Ham. Nav. Encyc. Syn: To attire; apparel; clothe; accouter; array; robe; rig; trim; deck; adorn; embellish.
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Audio Help [dres] Pronunciation Key noun, adjective, verb, dressed or drest, dress·ing. 
