DRESS | English Meaning, Definition, and Pronunciation

Middle English (in the sense ‘put straight’): from Old French dresser ‘arrange, prepare’, based on Latin directus ‘direct, straight’

put on one's clothes

put on clothes

• Graham showered and dressed quickly
• I'll go and get dressed

decorate (something) in an artistic or attractive way

decorate

• she'd enjoyed dressing the tree when the children were little

clean, treat, or apply a dressing to (a wound)

treat wound

• she washed the wound and dressed it with fresh bandages

clean and prepare (food, especially poultry or shellfish) for cooking or eating

prepare food

• dress the crab and shell the prawns

apply a fertilizer to (an area of ground or a plant)

apply fertilizer

• the field was dressed with unrotted farmyard manure

draw up (troops) in the proper alignment.

align troops

(of a man) have the genitals habitually on one or the other side of the fork of the trousers

have genitals on one side of trousers

• do you dress to the left?

make (an artificial fly) for use in fishing

make fly for fishing

• after you dress a dry fly, be sure to remove any oil before you make your next cast

a one-piece garment that covers the body and extends down over the thighs or legs, worn typically by women and girls

garment that covers body and extends down over thighs or legs

• a white cotton dress
• a dress designer

clothing of a specified kind for men or women

clothing of specified kind

• traditional African dress