Jump To:

• dress-down
  dress-down

  adjective

  pertaining to or being a policy that allows employees to dress less formally than usual.
• dress down
  dress down

  verb

  (tr) to reprimand severely or scold (a person)

dress-down

American  

[dres-doun] / ˈdrɛsˌdaʊn /

adjective

1. pertaining to or being a policy that allows employees to dress less formally than usual.

   dress-down days during the summer.

---

dress down British  

verb

1. informal (tr) to reprimand severely or scold (a person)

2. (intr) to dress in a casual or informal manner, esp at work

---

dress down Idioms  

1. Scold, reprimand, as in The sergeant will dress down the entire unit . In the 15th century the verb dress alone was used in the sense of “punish,” down being added several centuries later. It also gave rise to the noun dressing down for punishment with blows or words. For example, The teacher gave the girls a severe dressing down .

2. Wear informal clothes, as in It's best to dress down for a party like a barbecue . [Mid-1900s] For the antonym, see dress up .

---

Etymology

Origin of dress-down

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dress-down dress down

Rosalía wisely recruited the swooning Mexican American sierreña trio, Yahritza Y Su Esencia, to help her better emulate a Paquita La Del Barrio dress-down of a lover gone astray.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2025

He repeated the words “I’m comin'” at least a dozen times, and had players chant words such as “smart!” “tough!” and “disciplined!” after the dress-down.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 21, 2023

We have dress-down Fridays, which now becomes dress down every day of the week.

From Slate ● Jan. 24, 2018

Dress-down Friday has become dress-down every day in many workplaces, although people who deal with the public are usually still expected to don a tie every morning.

From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2017

As a student at Jasper County High, Mr. Pinckney took to wearing suits, ties and starched white shirts to school, even on dress-down Fridays in sweltering heat.

From New York Times ● Jun. 25, 2015

“My late husband worked in fundraising and had learned to look beyond the surface, as many of his former company’s largest donors tended to dress down so as to not attract attention,” she said.

From MarketWatch ● May 26, 2026

Sometimes I got to dress down just to try to get the help.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2026

He didn’t publicly dress down his colleagues’ but he timed his April 19 departure to ensure that under Wisconsin law, his seat would not be filled before November — an unmistakable message.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 27, 2024

So can they now dress down a bit?

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2022

Fair fight or not, she wasn’t going to let me dress down my father, not with language, not with anything.

From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee