dress up
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
See also: dress-up
English[edit]
Verb[edit]
dress up (third-person singular simple present dresses up, present participle dressing up, simple past and past participle dressed up)
- (intransitive) To put on special or fancy clothes.
- Synonym: (US) gussy up
- Antonym: dress down
- Everyone dressed up for the graduation ball.
- I want a job where I don't have to dress up.
- (intransitive, often with 'as') To put on a costume portraying oneself as a particular type of character or well-known person.
- We're having a party on Saturday, but you must dress up as a famous historical figure.
- (transitive, often with 'as') To put a costume on (someone) portraying them as a particular type of character or well-known person.
- The cat hated when they dressed him up for Halloween.
- (transitive) To decorate; to prettify.
- c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
- Mistress, your father prays you leave your books,
And help to dress your sister’s chamber up:
You know to-morrow is the wedding-day.
- (transitive) To present in a favorable light.
- Synonym: spin
- You can dress up that proposal however you want; it's still going to go over like a lead balloon.
Coordinate terms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
- 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
|
to put on special or fancy clothes
|
to put on a costume portraying oneself as a particular character or figure
|