dress-up
adjective
being an occasion, situation, etc., for which one must be somewhat formally well-dressed.
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
-
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.
-
Put on a costume of some kind, as in The children love dressing up as witches and goblins . [Late 1800s]
-
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 the display is tiny, the neural-band bracelet control is too fiddly and the glasses themselves make me look like a kid playing dress-up with her dad’s ’70s eyewear.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
She lists a few things — playing dress-up with her sister, negotiating with her father, and learning how to manipulate him to get what she wanted.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2025
“Just make her a peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich and let her play in the dress-up box. She’ll be plenty happy.”
From Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles
As host of ‘The Traitors,’ Cumming loves to dress up and play lord of the castle, but in Russell T Davies’ limited series, his latest dramatic role, he aims to shake people up.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 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
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
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
Academics in the softer fields dress up the trivial and obvious with the trappings of scientific sophistication, hoping to bamboozle their audiences with highfalutin gobbledygook.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
