dress

verb

1. (also, figuratively, reflexive, transitive)To put clothes (or, formerly, armour) on (oneself or someone, a doll, a mannequin, etc.); to clothe.

   “He was dressed in the latest fashions.”

   “My kids are old enough to dress themselves now.”

   “O rich! rich! vvhere ſhould I get clothes to dreſſe her in?”

   “Their face with love and vigour vvas ydreſt, / VVith modeſty and joy, their tongue with juſt beheſt.”

   “Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.”

2. (also, figuratively, reflexive, specifically, transitive)To put clothes (or, formerly, armour) on (oneself or someone, a doll, a mannequin, etc.); to clothe.

   “[A]ll the men there shoulde dresse themselves like the poorest sorte of the people in Arcadia, having no banners, but bloudie shirtes hanged upon long staves, […]”

   “[…] Anthony [i.e., Mark Antony] himſelfe was quite beſotted with Cleopatra’s ſweete ſpeeches, philters, beauty, pleaſing tires: for when ſhe ſailed along the riuer Cydnus, with ſuch incredible pompe in a guilded ſhip, her ſelfe dreſſed like Venus, her maides like the Graces, her Pages like ſo many Cupids, Anthony was amazed, & rapt beyond himſelfe.”

   “[H]e and I […] to the King's playhouse; and by and by comes Mr. Lowther and his wife and mine, and into a box, forsooth, neither of them being dressed, which I was almost ashamed of.”

   “Naw if I find 'tis a good day, I reſalve to take a turn in the Park, and ſee the Fine Women: So huddle on my Cloaths, and get dreſt by One.”

   “[B]eing ill-used by the above-mentioned widow, he was very serious for a year and a half; and though, his temper being naturally jovial, he at last got over it, he grew careless of himself, and never dressed afterwards.”

3. (transitive)To design, make, provide, or select clothes (for someone).

   “The fashion designer was proud to have dressed the queen for the charity event.”

4. (transitive)To arrange or style (someone's hair).

   “[Domitian] after his manner, with a cheerfull countenance and grieved heart, received the newes: being inwardly pricked, to think that his later counterfet triumph of Germany, wherin certain ſlaves bought for mony were attired and their haire dreſſed as captives of that country, was had in deriſion and iuſtly skorned abroad: […]”

   “By and by the King and Queen, who looked in this dress (a white laced waistcoat and a crimson short pettycoat, and her hair dressed à la negligence) mighty pretty; and the King rode hand in hand with her.”

5. (also, figuratively, transitive)To adorn or ornament (something).

   “It was time to dress the windows for Christmas again.”

   “But at night I would roam abroad and play / With the mermaids in and out of the rocks, / Dressing their hair with the white sea-flower, / And holding them back by their flowing locks […]”

   “There was no occasion for [Francis] Jeffrey to have written with such extreme harshness. If he felt obliged to expostulate, he might have dressed his censures in a kinder form.”

   “City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style / In the air there's a feeling of Christmas”

6. (also, figuratively, transitive)To adorn or ornament (something).
7. (also, figuratively, transitive)To adorn or ornament (something).
8. (transitive)To apply a dressing to or otherwise treat (a wound); (obsolete) to give (a wounded person) medical aid.

   “[T]he Mayd / His readie vvound with better ſalues new dreſt, / Daily ſhe dreſſed him, and did the beſt / His grieuous hurt to guariſh, that ſhe might, […]”

   “[H]e was deadly pale, and the blood-stained bandage round his head told that he had recently been wounded, and still more recently dressed.”

   “She ran into the house and returned with bandages; and while she bathed and dressed the wound Lassiter talked.”

9. (transitive)To fit or prepare (something) for use; to render (something) suitable for an intended purpose; to get ready.

   “Now when the towne his ſommonds did diſdain, / To conquer it perforce he plyde his pain: / And their, th’Inginers haue the Trepan dreſt, / And reared vp the Ramme for batterie beſt: […]”

   “And Aaron ſhall burne thereon [i.e., on the altar of incense] ſweet incenſe euery morning: when he dreſſeth the lamps he ſhal burn incenſe vpon it.”

   “Three hundred Horſes, in high Stables fed, / Stood ready, ſhining all, and ſmoothly dreſſ'd; […]”

10. (transitive)To fit or prepare (something) for use; to render (something) suitable for an intended purpose; to get ready.

    “The ſkinnes of Dogges are dreſſed for gloues, and cloſe Bootes, the vvhich are vſed by ſuch as haue vicerous and ſvvelling Legges or Limbes, for by them the aflicted place receiueth a double reliefe; firſt, it reſiſteth the influent humors, and ſecondly, it is not exaſperated with VVoollen.”

    “Very little buſineſs appeared to be going forward in Lichfield. I found however two ſtrange manufactures for ſo inland a place, ſail-cloth and ſtreamers for ſhips; and I obſerved them making ſome ſaddle-cloths, and dreſſing ſheepſkins; but upon the whole, the buſy hand of induſtry ſeemed to be quite ſlackened.”

    “He skinned the rabbits, and gave the dogs the one they had quarreled over, and the skin of this he dressed and hung up to dry, feeling that he would like to keep it. It was a particularly rich, furry pelt with a beautiful white tail.”

11. (especially, transitive)To fit or prepare (something) for use; to render (something) suitable for an intended purpose; to get ready.

    “in mining and metallurgy, to dress ores by sorting and separating them”

12. (transitive)To fit or prepare (something) for use; to render (something) suitable for an intended purpose; to get ready.
13. (England, historical, regional, transitive)To fit or prepare (something) for use; to render (something) suitable for an intended purpose; to get ready.
14. (transitive)To fit or prepare (something) for use; to render (something) suitable for an intended purpose; to get ready.
15. (transitive)To cultivate or tend to (a garden, land, plants, etc.); especially, to add fertilizer or manure to (soil); to fertilize, to manure.

    “Gard[ener]. Oh what pitie is it that he had not ſo trimde, / And dreſt his land as vve this garden at time of yeare / Do vvound the barke, the skinne of our fruit trees, […] Queene. Oh I am preſt to death through vvant of ſpeaking / Thou old Adams likeneſſe ſet to dreſſe this garden, / How dares thy harſh rude tong ſound this vnpleaſing nevvs?”

16. (transitive)To cut up (an animal or its flesh) for food.

    “But as he dressed the carcass—cutting it up to bring home—Borg’s gratitude gave way to revulsion. When he tried to extract the liver, which should have been firm and meaty, it deliquesced into a bloody sludge, sliding goopily through his fingers.”

17. (transitive)To prepare (food) for cooking or eating, especially by seasoning it; specifically, to add a dressing or sauce (to food, especially a salad).

    “Old vvom[an]: [O]nce vppon a time his daughter was ſtollen avvay, and hee ſent ſo long, that he ſent all his men out of his Land. / Frol[icke]: VVho dreſt his dinner then?”

    “Heere Loue, thou ſeeſt how diligent I am, / To dreſſe thy meate my ſelfe, and bring it thee.”

    “Where Corydon and Thyrſis met, / Are at their ſavory dinner ſet / Of Hearbes, and other Country Meſſes, / Which the neat-handed Phillis dreſſes; […]”

    “These two girls had been above an hour in the place, happily employed in visiting an opposite milliner, watching the sentinel on guard, and dressing a sallad and cucumber.”

18. (transitive)To design, make, or prepare costumes (for a play or other performance); also, to present (a production) in a particular costume style.
19. (transitive)To prepare (a set) by installing the props, scenery, etc.

    “Mallory, all night long, single-handedly painted and dressed the set so that at eight o'clock Sunday morning when we arrived to make breakfast in the kitchen, there she was sound asleep on the davenport in the set, every prop in place.”

20. (transitive)To arrange (soldiers or troops) into proper formation; especially, to adjust (soldiers or troops) into straight lines and at a proper distance from each other; to align.

    “to dress the ranks”

21. (Northern-England, archaic, transitive)To treat (someone) in a particular manner; specifically, in an appropriate or fitting manner; (by extension, ironic) to give (someone) a deserved beating; also, to give (someone) a good scolding; to dress down.

    “[...] I say, bid come before vs Angelo: What figure of vs thinke you, he will beare. For you must know, we haue with speciall soule Elected him our absence to supply; Lent him our terror, drest him with our loue, And giuen his Deputation all the Organs Of our owne powre: What thinke you of it?”

22. (obsolete, transitive)To break in and train (a horse or other animal) for use.

    “Oh how it ernd my hart when I beheld, / In London ſtreetes, that Coronation day, / VVhen Bullingbroke rode on Roane Barbarie. / That horſe, that thou ſo often haſt beſtride. / That horſe, that I ſo carefully haue dreſt.”

23. (intransitive, obsolete, reflexive)To prepare (oneself); to make ready.

    “[S]yr Gawayns ſpere brak ⸝ but ſir marhaus ſpere helde ⸝ And therwith ſyre Gawayne and his hors ruſſhed doune to the erthe ⸝ And lyghtly ſyre Gawayne roſe on his feet ⸝ and pulled out his ſwerd ⸝ and dreſſyd hym toward syr Marhaus on foote ⸝ […]”

24. (intransitive)To put on clothes.

    “I rose and dressed before daybreak.    It’s very cold out. Dress warm.”

25. (intransitive, specifically)To put on clothes.

    “They returned home early to dress for dinner.”

    “The three Gentlemen rode out, and returned juſt Time enough to dreſs for dinner.”

    “"We'd better get ready for dinner now. I always dress, because papa likes to see it." This she said as a hint to her cousin that he would be expected to change his coat, for her father would have been annoyed had his guest sat down to dinner without such ceremony.”

    “She has not dressed, because she despises the futility of London.”

26. (intransitive)Of a thing: to attain a certain condition after undergoing some process or treatment to fit or prepare it for use.
27. (euphemistic, intransitive)To allow one's penis to fall to one side or the other within one's trousers.

    “While measuring him for his trousers, the tailor asked him if he dressed to the left or the right.”

28. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, intransitive, slang)Ellipsis of cross-dress.
29. (intransitive)Of an animal carcass: to have a certain quantity or weight after removal of the internal organs and skin; also, to have a certain appearance after being cut up and prepared for cooking.
30. (imperative, intransitive, sometimes)Of soldiers or troops: to arrange into proper formation; especially, to form into straight lines and at a proper distance from each other.

    “Right, dress!”

31. (intransitive)Of a sportsperson: to put on the uniform and have the equipment needed to play a sport.

    “Due to a left ankle sprain, the basketball player did not dress for the game against Indiana.”

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)An item of clothing (usually worn by a woman or young girl) which both covers the upper part of the body and includes a skirt below the waist.

   “Amy and Mary looked very pretty in their dresses.”

   “She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.”

2. (countable, uncountable)An item of outer clothing or set of such clothes (worn by people of all sexes) which is generally decorative and appropriate for a particular occasion, profession, etc.

   “I have been thinking, George, of changing our travelling dreſſes in the morning. I am grown confoundedly aſhamed of mine.”

   “No good historical painting ever yet existed, or ever can exist, where the dresses of the people of the time are not beautiful: […]”

3. (India, broadly, countable, uncountable)An item of outer clothing or set of such clothes (worn by people of all sexes) which is generally decorative and appropriate for a particular occasion, profession, etc.

   “He wore a bright orange dress to the office yesterday.”

4. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable)Ellipsis of dress rehearsal.
5. (countable, uncountable)Apparel or clothing, especially when appropriate for a particular occasion, profession, etc.

   “military dress”

   “He came to the party in formal dress.”

   “Till I ſhall ſee you in your Souldiers dreſſe, / Which will become you both: Farewell.”

   “[I]t is a kind of acting to go into masquerade, and a man should be able to say or do things proper for the dress in which he appears. We have now and then rakes in the habit of Roman senators, and grave politicians in the dress of rakes.”

   “Your black silk frock will be quite dress enough, my dear, with that pretty little scarf, and a plain band in your hair, and a pair of black silk stock— […]”

6. (archaic, countable, uncountable)The act of putting on clothes, especially fashionable ones, or for a particular (especially formal) occasion.
7. (broadly, countable, uncountable)The external covering of an animal (for example, the feathers of a bird) or an object.

   “When the adults [i.e., birds] of both sexes have a distinct winter and summer plumage, whether or not the male differs from the female, the young resemble the adults of both sexes in their winter dress or much more rarely in their summer dress, or they resemble the females alone; or the young may have an intermediate character; or again they may differ greatly from the adults in both their seasonal plumages.”

8. (broadly, countable, uncountable)The appearance of an object after it has undergone some process or treatment to fit or prepare it for use; finish.
9. (broadly, countable, figuratively, uncountable)The external appearance of something, especially if intended to give a positive impression; garb, guise.

   “Sir, although / VVe may be ſaid to vvant the guilt, and trappings, / The dreſſe of Honor; yet vve ſtriue to keepe, / The ſeedes, and the Materialls.”

   “[…] Eloquence, the Dreſs of our Thoughts, like the Dreſs of our Bodies, differs not only in ſeveral Regions, but in ſeveral Ages.”

   “He has indeed reſcued it [i.e., learning] out of the hands of Pedants and Fools, and diſcover'd the true method of making it amiable and lovely to all mankind: In the dreſs he gives it, 'tis a moſt welcome gueſt at Tea-tables and Aſſemblies, and is reliſh'd and careſſed by the Merchants on the Change; […]”

10. (archaic, broadly, countable, historical, uncountable)The system of furrows on the face of a millstone.
11. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)The act of applying a dressing to or otherwise treating a wound; also, the dressing so applied.