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]
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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 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
Schools are allowed to celebrate Halloween or "school dress-up or activity days" that feature costumes — but only if "there are not more than five such days in a school year."
From Salon ● May 12, 2025
And things for dress-up: furry collars, crinoline slips, rose-smelling toilet water, bracelets, and new saddle shoes.
From "March Forward, Girl" by Melba Pattillo Beals
Another way of saying this is that they’ve found a new way to dress up “Survivor,” the original — and, heaven help us, still running — task-based themed elimination show.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 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
"The way the Brazilians dress up, they take it to a whole new level. There will still be a terrific atmosphere when we are together."
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026
Funders, by contrast, dress up their investments as prepaid forwards and claim capital gains treatment, lowering their top federal tax rate to 23.8% while exempting foreign funders from U.S. taxes entirely.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026
“You just never really dress up, that’s all.”
From "Far from the Tree" by Robin Benway
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.
