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dresser

 - 11 dictionary results
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dress⋅er

1  [dres-er]
Use dresser in a Sentence
–noun
1. a person who dresses.
2. a person employed to dress actors, care for costumes, etc., at a theater, television studio, or the like.
3. Chiefly British. a surgeon's assistant.
4. a person who dresses in a particular manner, as specified: a fancy dresser; a careful and distinctive dresser.
5. any of several tools or devices used in dressing materials.
6. Metalworking.
a. a block, fitting into an anvil, on which pieces are forged.
b. a mallet for shaping sheet metal.
7. a tool for truing the surfaces of grinding wheels.
Origin:
1400–50; late ME: guide. See dress, -er 1
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dress⋅er

2  [dres-er]
–noun
1. a dressing table or bureau.
2. a sideboard or set of shelves for dishes and cooking utensils.
3. Obsolete. a table or sideboard on which food is dressed for serving.
Origin:
1375–1425; ME dresso(u)r sideboard < AF; MF dresseur, OF dreceor(e), equiv. to dreci(er) to dress + -ore -ory 2 (F dressoir)

dress

  [dres] noun, adjective, verb, dressed or drest, dress⋅ing.
–noun
1. 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 *dīrēctiāre, deriv. of L dīrēctus direct; 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.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To dresser
dress·er 1   (drěs'ər)   
n.  

  1. One that dresses: a careful dresser.

  2. A wardrobe assistant, as for an actor.

dress·er 2   (drěs'ər)   
n.  

  1. A low chest of drawers often supporting a mirror and typically used for holding clothes and personal items.

  2. A cupboard or set of shelves for dishes or kitchen utensils.


[Middle English dressour, table for preparing food, from Old French dreceur, from drecier, to set up, arrange; see dress.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History

dress  (v.)
c.1330, "make straight," from O.Fr. dresser "put right, put straight," from V.L. *directiare, from L. directus "direct, straight." Sense of "decorate, adorn" is c.1380; that of "put on clothing" c. 1395. Original sense survives in military meaning "align columns of troops." Dress up "attire elaborately" is from 1674; dressing down "wearing clothes less formal than expected" is from 1960. To dress (someone) down (1769) is ironical. To dress meat or other food (for cooking) is 14c. Dressing-gown first recorded 1777.
"One of those fine old dressy things, who thinks to conceal her age, by everywhere exposing her person" [Goldsmith, 1768].

dresser 
"table, sideboard," c.1393, from O.Fr. dresseur "table to prepare food," from dresser "prepare, dress" (see dress (v.)). Meaning of "chest, dressing bureau" appeared 1895.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: dress
Pronunciation: 'dres
Function: verb
: to apply dressings or medicaments to

Main Entry: dress·er
Pronunciation: 'dres-&r
Function: noun
: a person who serves as a doctor's assistant especially in the dressing of lesions
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
Cite This Source
Medical Dictionary

dress (drěs)
v. dressed, dress·ing, dress·es
To apply medication, bandages, or other therapeutic materials to an area of the body such as a wound.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Encyclopedia

dresser

a cupboard used for the display of fine tableware, such as silver, pewter, or earthenware. Dressers were widely used in England beginning in Tudor times, when they were no more than a side table occasionally fitted with a row of drawers. The front stood on three or five turned (shaped on a lathe) legs linked by stretchers. Horizontal planes such as the dresser's top and drawer fronts were decorated with matching molding. A low backboard, often with narrow shelves or drawers, was introduced about 1690, and, soon afterward, a decorative shelf beneath the main drawers was added. Shelves without backs were added later to display English delftware. Dressers of this type became a common feature of the middle-class kitchen up to the 19th century.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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