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
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]
First recorded in 1665–75; noun, adj. use of verb phrase dress up
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He asked about Jordan's prisoner costume, and Jordan said Will told him he didn't need to dress up like a prisoner to look like a criminal.
From BBC • May 15, 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
In reality, it’s a cover story people use to dress up views — like advocating teen pregnancy — they can’t argue for directly in public.
From Salon • Apr. 20, 2026
He has the confidence to only dress up his new dystopia a tad, letting the scale of the oppression creep up on you when, say, an açaí bowl salesman casually asks Tereza for her papers.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 3, 2026
He and I have one thing in common: we like to dress up, which makes everyone laugh.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
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.
