dress

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See also: Dress and Dreß

English

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WOTD – 19 August 2022

Etymology

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PIE word
*dwís

The verb is from Middle English dressen, dresse (“to arrange, put in order”),[1] from Anglo-Norman, Old French dresser, drecier (modern French dresser), from Late Latin *directiare, from Latin dīrēctus,[2] the perfect passive participle of dīrigō (“to arrange in lines, direct, steer”), from dis- (prefix meaning ‘apart; asunder; in two’) + regō (“to govern, manage”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“straight, right”). Doublet of direct.

The noun is derived from the verb.[3]

Pronunciation

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Verb

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dress (third-person singular simple present dresses, present participle dressing, simple past dressed, past participle dressed or (obsolete) drest)

  1. (transitive)
    1. (also reflexive and figuratively) To put clothes (or, formerly, armour) on (oneself or someone, a doll, a mannequin, etc.); to clothe. [from 15th c.]
      Synonyms: attire, don; see also Thesaurus:clothe
      Antonyms: strip, undress; see also Thesaurus:undress
      He was dressed in the latest fashions.
      • 1606 (date written), [Francis Beaumont; John Fletcher], The Woman Hater. […], London: […] [Robert Raworth], and are to be sold by John Hodgets […], published 1607, →OCLC, Act III, scene iv:
        O rich! rich! vvhere ſhould I get clothes to dreſſe her in?
      • 1640 (date written), H[enry] M[ore], “ΨΥΧΟΖΩΙΑ [Psychozōia], or A Christiano-platonicall Display of Life, […]”, in ΨΥΧΩΔΙΑ [Psychōdia] Platonica: Or A Platonicall Song of the Soul, […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel, printer to the Universitie, published 1642, →OCLC, book 3, stanza 56, page 51:
        Their face with love and vigour vvas ydreſt, / VVith modeſty and joy, their tongue with juſt beheſt.
      • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 15:
        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.
      • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Justifiably Angry Young Men”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 93:
        I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because "it was wicked to dress us like charity children". We nearly crowned her we were so offended.
      1. (specifically) To attire (oneself or someone) for a particular (especially formal) occasion, or in a fashionable manner.
        • c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC:
          [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, […]
        • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Artificiall Allurements of Loue, Causes and Provocations to Lust. Gestures, Cloathes, Dowre &c.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 2, member 2, subsection 3, page 376:
          […] 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.
        • 1667 April 4 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “March 25th, 1667 (Lady day)”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume VI, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1895, →OCLC, page 238:
          [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.
        • 1696 November (first performance), [John Vanbrugh], The Relapse; or, Virtue in Danger: […], [London]: […] Samuel Briscoe […], published 1697, →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 29:
          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.
        • 1711 March 13 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “FRIDAY, March 2, 1710–1711”, in The Spectator, number 2; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 88:
          [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.
          The spelling has been modernized.
        • 1749, Henry Fielding, “The History Draws Nearer to a Conclusion”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume VI, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book XVIII, page 279:
          [T]he Hour appointed by Mr. Weſtern now drew ſo near, that he had barely Time left to dreſs himſelf.
        • 1760, Oliver Goldsmith, “Letter XIV. From the Same [From Lien Chi Altangi, to Fum Hoam, First President of the Ceremonial Academy at Pekin, in China].”, in The Citizen of the World; or Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, […], volume I, London: […] [F]or the author; and sold by J. Newbery and W. Bristow, […]; J. Leake and W. Frederick, […]; B. Collins, […]; and A. M. Smart and Co. […], published 1762, →OCLC, pages 48–49:
          As I was dreſſed after the faſhion of Europe, ſhe had taken me for an Engliſhman, and conſequently ſaluted me in her ordinary manner; but when the footman informed her grace that I was the gentleman from China, ſhe inſtantly lifted herſelf from the couch, while her eyes ſparkled with unuſual vivacity.
    2. To design, make, provide, or select clothes (for someone).
      The fashion designer was proud to have dressed the queen for the charity event.
    3. To arrange or style (someone's hair).
      • 1610, William Camden, “Romans in Britaine”, in Philémon Holland, transl., Britain, or A Chorographicall Description of the Most Flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland, […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press for] Georgii Bishop & Ioannis Norton, →OCLC, page 61:
        [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: […]
      • 1663 July 23 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “July 13th, 1663”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume III, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893, →OCLC, page 208:
        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.
    4. (also figuratively) To adorn or ornament (something). [from 15th c.]
      It was time to dress the windows for Christmas again.
      1. To arrange a display of goods in, or to decorate (a shop or shop window).
      2. (nautical) To ornament (a ship) by hoisting the national colours at the peak and mastheads, and setting the jack forward; when "dressed full", the signal flags and pennants are added.
    6. To apply a dressing to or otherwise treat (a wound); (obsolete) to give (a wounded person) medical aid. [from 15th c.]
      Synonyms: bandage, put a bandage on
    7. To fit or prepare (something) for use; to render (something) suitable for an intended purpose; to get ready.
      1. To prepare, treat, or curry (animal hide or leather).
        • 1607, Conradus Gesnerus [i.e., Conrad Gessner], Edward Topsell, “Of the Dogge”, in The Historie of Foure-footed Beastes. […], London: […] William Iaggard, →OCLC, page 143:
          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.
        • 1791, James Boswell, “[1776]”, in James Boswell, editor, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], volume II, London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], →OCLC, page 35:
          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.
        • 1912 January, Zane Grey, “Silver Spruce and Aspens”, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC, page 115:
          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.
      3. (especially of ores) To prepare by any of many types of physical processing (e.g., breaking, crushing, sorting, sieving, controlled burning or heating).
        in mining and metallurgy, to dress ores by sorting and separating them
        Hyponym: rag
      5. To prepare the surface of (a material, such as lumber or stone; a grindstone or grinding wheel).
        Hyponym: rag
      6. (historical or England, regional) To remove chaff or impurities from (flour, grain, etc.) by bolting or sifting, winnowing, and other methods.
      7. (fishing) To prepare (an artificial fly) to be attached to a fish hook.
    8. (agriculture, horticulture) To cultivate or tend to (a garden, land, plants, etc.); especially, to add fertilizer or manure to (soil); to fertilize, to manure.
    9. (butchering) To cut up (an animal or its flesh) for food.
      Hyponyms: dress out, field dress
      • December 2020, Tim Folger, “North America’s most valuable resource is at risk”, in National Geographic Magazine‎[1]:
        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.
    10. (cooking) To prepare (food) for cooking or eating, especially by seasoning it; specifically, to add a dressing or sauce (to food, especially a salad). [from 15th c.]
    11. (film, television, theater)
      1. To design, make, or prepare costumes (for a play or other performance); also, to present (a production) in a particular costume style.
      2. To prepare (a set) by installing the props, scenery, etc.
        • 2012, Marvin Silbersher, chapter 22, in A Fistful of Stars, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 106:
          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.
    12. (military) 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
    13. (Northern England, archaic) 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.
      • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
        [...] 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?
    14. (obsolete) To break in and train (a horse or other animal) for use.
  2. (reflexive, intransitive, obsolete) To prepare (oneself); to make ready. [14th–16th c.]
    • [1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum xviij”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book IV (in Middle English), [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC, leaf 222, recto; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC, page 142, lines 19–21:
      [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 ⸝ […]
      Sir Gawain's spear broke, but Sir Marhaus's [i.e., Morholt of Ireland's] spear held; and therewith Sir Gawain and his horse rushed down to the earth, and lightly Sir Gawain rose on his feet, and pulled out his sword, and dressed [prepared] himself toward Sir Marhaus on foot, […]]
  3. (intransitive)
    1. To put on clothes.
      Synonym: get dressed
      Antonyms: disrobe, get undressed, strip, undress
      I rose and dressed before daybreak.    It’s very cold out. Dress warm.
      1. (specifically) To attire oneself for a particular (especially formal) occasion, or in a fashionable manner.
        They returned home early to dress for dinner.
    2. Of a thing: to attain a certain condition after undergoing some process or treatment to fit or prepare it for use.
    3. (euphemistic, chiefly in the tailoring context) To allow one's penis to fall to one side or the other within one's trousers. [from 20th c.]
      While measuring him for his trousers, the tailor asked him if he dressed to the left or the right.
    4. (slang) Ellipsis of cross-dress.
    5. (butchering) 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.
    6. (military, sometimes imperative as a drill command) 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!
      (literally, “Form a straight line, and align yourself to the right!”)
    7. (sports) 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.

Conjugation

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Conjugation of dress
infinitive (to) dress
present tense past tense
1st-person singular dress dressed
2nd-person singular
3rd-person singular dresses
plural dress
subjunctive dress dressed
imperative dress —
participles dressing dressed, drest†

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → Sranan Tongo: dresi

Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun

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dress (countable and uncountable, plural dresses)

A 19th-century illustration of a woman wearing a dress (sense 1.1).
  1. (countable)
    2. (clothing) 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.
    3. (archaic) 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.
    4. (film, television, theater) Ellipsis of dress rehearsal.
  2. (uncountable)
    1. Apparel or clothing, especially when appropriate for a particular occasion, profession, etc.
      military dress
      He came to the party in formal dress.
    2. (archaic) The act of putting on clothes, especially fashionable ones, or for a particular (especially formal) occasion.
    3. (by extension)
      1. The external covering of an animal (for example, the feathers of a bird) or an object.
        • 1871, Charles Darwin, “Birds—concluded”, in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. […], volume II, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, Part II (Sexual Selection), page 187:
          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.
      2. The appearance of an object after it has undergone some process or treatment to fit or prepare it for use; finish.
      3. (figuratively) The external appearance of something, especially if intended to give a positive impression; garb, guise.
        • 1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, →OCLC; reprinted Menston, Yorkshire: The Scolar Press, 1970, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i:
          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.
        • 1663, Robert Boyle, Some Considerations Touching the Style of the H[oly] Scriptures. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, pages 163–164:
          […] Eloquence, the Dreſs of our Thoughts, like the Dreſs of our Bodies, differs not only in ſeveral Regions, but in ſeveral Ages.
        • 1711 May 14 (Gregorian calendar), J[ohn] G[ay], The Present State of Wit, in a Letter to a Friend in the Country, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 14:
          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; […]
      4. (archaic, historical) The system of furrows on the face of a millstone.
    4. (obsolete) The act of applying a dressing to or otherwise treating a wound; also, the dressing so applied.

Derived terms

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Descendants

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Translations

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item of clothing which both covers the upper part of the body and includes a skirt below the waist

See also

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References

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  1. ^ “dressen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “dress, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2021; “dress, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ “dress, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2021; “dress, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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Norwegian Bokmål

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Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Etymology 1

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From English dress, from Middle English dressen, from Old French dresser, drescer, drecier (“to erect, set up, arrange, dress”), from either Medieval Latin dīrēctiō (“direction, aiming, correction”) or Vulgar Latin dirēctiāre, from Latin dīrectus (“straight, direct, directed”), from Proto-Italic *dwizrektos, perfect passive participle of dīrigō (“straighten, direct”), from Proto-Italic *dwizregō, from both dis- (“asunder, in pieces, apart, in two”), from Proto-Italic *dwis-, from Proto-Indo-European *dwís (“twice, doubly, in two”) + regō (“I make straight, rule”), from Proto-Italic *regō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃réǵeti (“to straighten; right”), from *h₃reǵ- (“to straighten, to right oneself, just”).

Noun

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dress m (definite singular dressen, indefinite plural dresser, definite plural dressene)

  1. (clothing) a suit (either formal wear, or leisure or sports wear)

Etymology 2

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Verb

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dress

  1. imperative of dresse

References

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Norwegian Nynorsk

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Etymology

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From English dress (verb: kle på seg).

Noun

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dress m (definite singular dressen, indefinite plural dressar, definite plural dressane)

  1. (clothing) a suit (either formal wear, or leisure or sports wear)

References

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