dress-up
adjective
being an occasion, situation, etc., for which one must be somewhat formally well-dressed.
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dries up.
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
And while the sing-along and dress-up aspects of “The Nightmare Before Christmas in Concert” are life-affirming and family-friendly despite an inherent darkness, it’s often the shadows where Elfman likes to dwell.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2025
He was in strange clothes of black and white that were obviously dress-up.
From "Dragonwings" by Laurence Yep
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
They dress up, braid their hair in a special way and are free to dance and play together outside, something which is traditionally frowned upon at other times of the year.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
It’ll be too hot to dress up in 19th-century garb, but Rachel plans to serve “Little House”-inspired snacks of popcorn and apples, foods the family ate throughout the series.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
This was the game that we got tickets for, so we decided to dress up a little bit and have some fun.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026
“You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just that I’m not allowed to dress up or go trick-or-treating. And forget about candy.”
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.
