dresser1
[dres-er]
- a person who dresses.
- a person employed to dress actors, care for costumes, etc., at a theater, television studio, or the like.
- Chiefly British. a surgeon's assistant.
- a person who dresses in a particular manner, as specified: a fancy dresser; a careful and distinctive dresser.
- any of several tools or devices used in dressing materials.
- Metalworking.
- a block, fitting into an anvil, on which pieces are forged.
- a mallet for shaping sheet metal.
- a tool for truing the surfaces of grinding wheels.
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Origin of dresser1
dresser2
[dres-er]
- dressing table
- a sideboard or set of shelves for dishes and cooking utensils.
- Obsolete. a table or sideboard on which food is dressed for serving.
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Origin of dresser2
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for dresser
Contemporary Examples
The room held a sizable amount of old, worn furniture: the bed, a studio couch, three stuffed chairs, a chifforobe and a dresser.
Pop music, much like a teenager with a dresser full of training bras and her first summer job, is going through a lot changes.
Kate might also want to think about taking a dresser or a lady's maid.
The traces were discovered in a body of rock called the Dresser Foundation, near the town of Port Hedland.
The note is on the dresser in his small private room where he likes to read and think.
Historical Examples
Give me the Holy Water, Nora, there's a small sup still on the dresser.
Riders to the SeaJ. M. Synge
When she was not at home, it sat on K.'s dresser, propped against his collar-box.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
The girl shortened the stems of the roses and put them in a vase on Katy's dresser.
Her Father's DaughterGene Stratton-Porter
Then she cut a hunch off a great loaf, and put it beside the bowl on the dresser.
Great Uncle Hoot-TootMrs. Molesworth
When the water drains off, turn them out on a dresser covered with a cloth, and put over another cloth to dry them perfectly.
dresser1
- a set of shelves, usually also with cupboards or drawers, for storing or displaying dishes, etc
- US a chest of drawers for storing clothing in a bedroom or dressing room, often having a mirror on the top
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Word Origin
C14 dressour, from Old French dreceore, from drecier to arrange; see dress
dresser2
- a person who dresses in a specified waya fashionable dresser
- theatre a person employed to assist actors in putting on and taking off their costumes
- a tool used for dressing stone or other materials
- British a person who assists a surgeon during operations
- British See window-dresser
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for dresser
n.
c.1300, "person who prepares or furnishes," agent noun from dress (v.). Meaning "table, sideboard," is late 14c., from Old French dresseur, dreçoir "table to prepare food," from dresser "prepare, dress." Meaning "chest, dressing bureau" is from 1895.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper