dinner dress

American  

noun

1. a dress, often long and having sleeves or a jacket, more elaborate than one designed for daytime wear but less formal than an evening gown.

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Etymology

Origin of dinner dress

First recorded in 1805–15

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dinner dress

They taught growing girls the timetable of dress—nightgown and wrapper; day dress and visiting; tea gown, dinner dress and evening gown—and gave them hands-on training with a wee wardrobe, which they often sewed themselves.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2026

The garments that they could not find, such as Bessette’s wedding dress, her rehearsal dinner dress and a tan and black ruffle coat from Yamamoto, they re-created using historical images and input from the designers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026

Then you’d put on an afternoon dress, then your dinner dress, and if you were going out you’d put on an evening dress, and then when you got home you’d put on your gown.

From Slate ● Jan. 25, 2012

I don’t even know what to call the strange pink tulle appendage that overlays her dinner dress in Act II.

From New York Times ● Jun. 18, 2011

“No ceremony,” he stipulated, “and no dinner dress, and say to-morrow.”

From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens

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