dresser

¹

[dres-er]

noun

1. a dressing table or bureau.

2. a sideboard or set of shelves for dishes and cooking utensils.

3. Obsolete.,  a table or sideboard on which food is dressed for serving.

dresser

²

[dres-er]

noun

1. a person who dresses.

2. a person employed to dress actors, care for costumes, etc., at a theater, television studio, or the like.

3. Chiefly British.,  a surgeon's assistant.

4. a person who dresses in a particular manner, as specified.

   a fancy dresser;

   a careful and distinctive dresser.

5. any of several tools or devices used in dressing materials.

6. Metalworking.

   1. a block, fitting into an anvil, on which pieces are forged.

   2. a mallet for shaping sheet metal.

7. a tool for truing the surfaces of grinding wheels.

dresser

¹

/ ˈdrɛsə /

noun

1. a person who dresses in a specified way

   a fashionable dresser

2. theatre a person employed to assist actors in putting on and taking off their costumes

3. a tool used for dressing stone or other materials

4. a person who assists a surgeon during operations

5. See window-dresser

dresser

²

/ ˈdrɛsə /

noun

1. a set of shelves, usually also with cupboards or drawers, for storing or displaying dishes, etc

2. a chest of drawers for storing clothing in a bedroom or dressing room, often having a mirror on the top

Word History and Origins

Origin of dresser¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English dresso(u)r, dressur(e), “sideboard,” from Anglo-French; Middle French dresseur, Old French dreçor, dreceor(e), equivalent to dreci(ier) “to dress ” + -ore -ory ²

Origin of dresser²

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English: “guide; director”; dress, -er ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of dresser¹

C14 dressour, from Old French dreceore, from drecier to arrange; see _dress

Example Sentences

It only has one circular patch of visible skin—its face, which is the same light wooden brown as the old dressers around the room.

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Mrs. Clarke began folding the basket of cloth diapers and comically miniature baby clothes she had brought to fill the dresser drawers.

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Penelope knew exactly where to find the hair poultice from Miss Mortimer; she had tucked the packet in the back of her dresser drawer earlier, when she first returned to the nursery.

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Bookshelves and dressers had capsized, scattering their contents everywhere.

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Imagine my surprise when, instead, I saw her wicker dresser fully engulfed in flame, the fire licking up the wall.

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Related Words

• closet 
• wardrobe