dress-down

[dres-doun]

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

verb

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

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of dress down¹

First recorded in 1950–55

Idioms and Phrases

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 .

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 .

Example Sentences

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.

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That, in fact, in Mr. Bankman-Fried’s overwhelming embrace of the dress-down mystique — one colleague, Andy Croghan, told The New York Times, “Sam and I would intentionally not wear pants to meetings” — he actually missed the point, which was that it is the details and what you don’t see that matters.

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Simultaneously, the need to embellish one’s individuality should be acknowledged with dress-down days at various times throughout the school year.

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“A Hawaiian shirt for dress-down Fridays.”

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Pointedly, and unlike his fellow tech entrepreneurs who have enshrined the dress-down uniform in the mythology of their sector and equated it with a life of the mind, Bezos has a facility for dressing up.

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