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Dress   /drɛs/   Listen
noun
Dress  n.  
1.
That which is used as the covering or ornament of the body; clothes; garments; habit; apparel. "In your soldier's dress."
2.
A lady's gown; as, silk or a velvet dress.
3.
Attention to apparel, or skill in adjusting it. "Men of pleasure, dress, and gallantry."
4.
(Milling) The system of furrows on the face of a millstone.
Dress parade (Mil.), a parade in full uniform for review.



verb
Dress  v. t.  (past & past part. dressed or drest; pres. part. dressing)  
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." 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."
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." "When he dresseth the lamps he shall burn incense." "Three hundred horses... smoothly dressed." "Dressing their hair with the white sea flower.". "If he felt obliged to expostulate, he might have dressed his censures in a kinder form."
(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." "Prove that ever Idress myself handsome till thy return."
(d)
To break and train for use, as a horse or other animal.
To dress up or To dress out, to dress elaborately, artificially, or pompously. "You see very often a king of England or France dressed up like a Julius Caesar."
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.
Synonyms: To attire; apparel; clothe; accouter; array; robe; rig; trim; deck; adorn; embellish.



Dress  v. i.  
1.
(Mil.) To arrange one's self in due position in a line of soldiers; the word of command to form alignment in ranks; as, Dress right, dress!
2.
To clothe or apparel one's self; to put on one's garments; to pay particular regard to dress; as, to dress quickly. "To dress for a ball." "To flaunt, to dress, to dance, to thrum.".
To dress to the right, To dress to the left, To dress on the center (Mil.), to form alignment with reference to the soldier on the extreme right, or in the center, of the rank, who serves as a guide.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Dress" Quotes from Famous Books



... never consent to!" said the first. "Let me do things properly, while you go and change your dress ...
— The Silver Crown - Another Book of Fables • Laura E. Richards

... the Bible, which are justice and mercy and faith in goodness. You blind guides, who strain at a gnat and swallow a camel! (Laughter). Woe unto you, doctors of divinity and Anglicans, hypocrites! for you bathe yourselves and dress in immaculate clothing but within you are full of extortion and excess. You blind high churchmen, clean first your hearts, so that the clothes you wear may represent you. Woe unto you, doctors of divinity and Baptists, hypocrites! ...
— The Profits of Religion, Fifth Edition • Upton Sinclair

... size of the sheets of transparent ice that formed the windows of the mansion, and asked me if I had ever seen their like at home, and I came right out frankly and confessed that I hadn't, which pleased her more than she could find words to dress her gratification in. It was so easy to please her, and such a pleasure to do it, that I ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... ink, "silk," "cotton," "flannel," "calico," etc., as well as ancient masculine and feminine costumes. Here we would crack the nuts, nibble the sharp edges of the maple sugar, chew some favorite herb, play ball with the bags, whirl the old spinning wheels, dress up in our ancestors' clothes, and take a bird's-eye view of the surrounding country from an enticing scuttle hole. This was forbidden ground; but, nevertheless, we often went there on the sly, which only made the ...
— Eighty Years And More; Reminiscences 1815-1897 • Elizabeth Cady Stanton

... considerable amount of worldly experience. If one could have the worldly experience also—! True! but then it is so difficult to get everything. But with that special matter of business we need not have any further concern. We will presume it to have been discussed and completed, and will now dress ourselves for Miss Dunstable's conversazione. But it must not be supposed that she was so poor in genius as to call her party openly by a name borrowed for the nonce from Mrs. Proudie. It was only among her specially intimate friends, Mrs. Harold Smith ...
— Framley Parsonage • Anthony Trollope


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