dress up

See also: dress-up

English

Verb

dress up (third-person singular simple present dresses up, present participle dressing up, simple past and past participle dressed up)

1. (intransitive) To put on special or fancy clothes.

   Antonym: dress down

   Everyone dressed up for the graduation ball.

   I want a job where I don't have to dress up.

2. (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.

3. (transitive) To decorate; to prettify.
   • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act III, Scene 1,^[1]

     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.

4. (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.

Derived terms

• dressed up

Translations

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

• Armenian: զուգվել (hy) (zugvel)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 打扮 (zh) (dǎbàn)

• Esperanto: alivestiĝi
• Finnish: pukeutua (fi) (siististi, hienosti, tyylikkäästi), laittautua (fi)
• French: se costumer (fr)
• German: aufputzen, sich herausputzen, sich verkleiden
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: kiöltözik (hu)
• Italian: farsi bella, vestirsi bene, agghindarsi (it), vestirsi a festa, mettersi in ghingheri, vestirsi elegantemente, travestirsi
• Japanese: 着飾る (きかざる, kikazaru)
• Polish: przebierać się (pl), przebrać się (pl)
• Russian: наряди́ться (ru) (narjadítʹsja), приоде́ться (ru) (priodétʹsja)
• Spanish: ponerse bonito, embellecer (es)
• Vietnamese: ^{(please verify)} ăn mặc đàng hoàng , ^{(please verify)} ăn mặc sang trọng (vi)

to put on special or fancy clothes

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

to put on a costume portraying oneself as a particular character or figure

• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}