dress
/dɹes/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.76 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To put clothes (or, formerly, armour) on (oneself or someone, a doll, a mannequin, etc.); to clothe.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "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."
Etymology
PIE word *dwís The verb is from Middle English dressen, dresse (“to arrange, put in order”), from Anglo-Norman, Old French dresser, drecier (modern French dresser), from Late Latin *dīrēctiāre (“to guide, direct”), from Classical Latin dīrēctus, whence English direct. Further akin to Latin regō. The noun is derived from the verb. Compare typologically adorn (<< Latin ōrnō < ōrdō, whence also ōrdinō, English order, ornament); Russian наряжа́ть (narjažátʹ), наря́д (narjád) (akin to ряд (rjad), поря́док (porjádok)).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /dɹes/
- British English: /dɹes/
Usage
Inflected Forms
dresses (present, singular)
dressing (participle, present)
dressed (past)
dressed (participle, past)
drest (obsolete, participle)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
dressed (first person, past)
dressed (past, second person)
dressed (past, singular)
dressed (past, plural)
dressed (past, subjunctive)