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
It’s fun to channel personal self-expression through hair, says Smith, who adds that rotating hair colors feels like a mix of playing dress-up and sporting a visible mood ring atop his head.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 19, 2024
They went for it, taking turns playing dress-up.
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
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
Visitors, many of whom dress up as their favourite characters, will be able to play new releases at hundreds of stations starting Wednesday.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
“You don’t need to be in a suite to feel like you can dress up for the matches, which I think is really cool.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
Trump loves to dress up in white tie and tails to hob-nob with the royals.
From Salon ● May 3, 2026
“I was just—awkward. I know not everyone celebrates Halloween, but I’ve never had a friend who didn’t dress up and trick-or-treat.”
From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan
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.
