dress-up
adjective
being an occasion, situation, etc., for which one must be somewhat formally well-dressed.
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dress-up
American
[dres-uhp]
/ ˈdrɛsˌʌp /
adjective
noun
dress up
British
verb
-
to attire (oneself or another) in one's best clothes
-
to put fancy dress, disguise, etc, on (oneself or another), as in children's games
let's dress up as ghosts!
-
(tr) to improve the appearance or impression of
it's no good trying to dress up the facts
dress up
Idioms
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Wear formal or elaborate clothes, as in I love to dress up for a party . [Late 1600s] For the antonym, see dress down , def. 2.
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Put on a costume of some kind, as in The children love dressing up as witches and goblins . [Late 1800s]
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Adorn or disguise something in order to make it more interesting or appealing. For example, She has a way of dressing up her account with fanciful details . [Late 1600s]
Etymology
Origin of dress-up
First recorded in 1665–75; noun, adj. use of verb phrase dress up
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A venue in Rotterdam turned itself over to fantasy dress-up and gamer fanaticism on the weekend, with thousands attending TwitchCon Europe.
From Barron's ● May 30, 2026
I imagine the A.I. bot like a child playing dress-up, donning an oversized blazer and glasses for a game of “businessman.”
From Slate ● Mar. 20, 2026
But Bi is after more than elaborate dress-up, conceiving each episode as an exploration of how movies amplify and comment on life’s cavalcade of emotions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2025
Indeed, Y2K dress-up days are popping up in workplaces and on college campuses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025
“Well, we’re not the dress-up types,” I said, picking up another sugary petit four and biting into it to stop myself from defending Mamá’s honor to the point of being rude to our hostess.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
When Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy ludicrously urged Americans to dress up for travel, he was referencing this imaginary age of girdles and silk-stockinged women dolled up like Veronica Lake.
From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026
Styles' music played in the shops and staff wore ties to "dress up" like the artist, who often performs wearing the accessory.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Typically people dress up as characters -- human or otherwise -- from movies, series, comics, pop culture, fantasy, roleplay or computer games.
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
This was the game that we got tickets for, so we decided to dress up a little bit and have some fun.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026
“But don’t you want to dress up for the trick-or-treaters?” she says.
From "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" by Becky Albertalli
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
