overdress
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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to dress with too much display, finery, or formality.
He certainly overdressed for the occasion.
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to put excessive clothing on.
She tends to overdress her children.
noun
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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overdresssimple
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overdressessimple
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have overdressedperfect
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has overdressedperfect
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am overdressingprogressive
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are overdressingprogressive
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is overdressingprogressive
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have been overdressingperfect progressive
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has been overdressingperfect progressive
Past
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overdressedsimple
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had overdressedperfect
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was overdressingprogressive
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were overdressingprogressive
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had been overdressingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of overdress
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:
"I was wearing formal clothing – that taught me not to overdress in hot weather."
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026
“It’s just flagrantly obnoxious to overdress in a workplace situation, especially when you’re a junior member,” said Gunn, best known for being a clear-eyed mentor on the fashion-design competition show “Project Runway.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 7, 2026
“Castelfranco tends to be less bitter and more tender than its fellow radicchios, so I try not to overdress it in a salad,” says Rand Rasheed, who grows it at One Leaf Farm.
From Seattle Times ● May 21, 2022
“The sweetness means it can take an acid nicely,” notes the chef, who instructs his staff to slightly overdress Little Gems because he finds the “juiciness” of the leaves slightly dilutes the dressing.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 18, 2022
He did not like jewels, and inclined to the opinion of a noble lord who once remarked coarsely, "The devil has nothing left to teach women who overdress themselves and coil their hair fantastically."
From Abb? Aubain and Mosaics by M?rim?e, Prosper
As the head of a luxury marketing agency who overdresses, smokes, mocks political correctness and oozes meanness, she is the extreme version of the “Parisienne,” disseminating style and scorn in equal measure.
From New York Times ● Nov. 9, 2020
She still overdresses, and makes eyes, and she nudges those who sit next her at table, but she is good-natured, says whatever comes into her head, and has a strong sense of humor.
From Unleavened Bread by Grant, Robert
The eight bridesmaids wore dresses of white corded silk, alike in every particular, with overdresses of white illusion, sashes of white silk arranged in a succession of loops from the waist downward, forming graceful drapery.
From Perley's Reminiscences, v. 1-2 of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis by Poore, Benjamin Perley
They wear bodices and overdresses of the very palest pink, flowered with deep-pink roses.
From Patriotic Plays and Pageants for Young People by Mackay, Constance D'Arcy
The bride-maids were all dressed in a uniform of white tarletan, trained, with overdresses of the same, rose-colored sashes and bows, and rose wreaths on their heads.
From Victor's Triumph Sequel to A Beautiful Fiend by Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte
Or 1989, widely and unfairly remembered as the Worst Oscars Ever, which Schulman, a staff writer for The New Yorker, dissects like a forensic pathologist hovering over an overdressed corpse.
From New York Times ● Mar. 7, 2023
But many of us are still loyal to sweatpants, and perhaps less inclined to participate in the formal, overdressed dining rituals of our pre-pandemic lives.
From Salon ● Nov. 26, 2022
All four family members are overdressed throughout but it is Moira and David who make it an artform.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 16, 2020
However, his costume choices have attracted criticism in the past - including during a 2018 official visit to India, when his extensive range of traditional Indian outfits were mocked as "ridiculously overdressed".
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2019
Mother is wearing a simple white dress—like a country bride wearing a hand-me-down, I suddenly think, and I feel a rush of panic that we have overdressed, all of us.
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
Doing the most: People made up for the past few years by overdressing in 2022.
From New York Times ● Dec. 31, 2022
We're overdressing her all the time, which I adore because it's not realistic at all, and we can do it and Darren loves it.
From Salon ● Dec. 21, 2022
Avoid the gruesome pitfalls of overdressing or underdressing.
From Slate ● Feb. 2, 2012
Saturday-Night Outfit: It depends where, but I always believe in overdressing.
From New York Times ● Mar. 4, 2010
But there was a faded look about her now, and she had a weakness for loud talking and overdressing.
From The Von Toodleburgs Or, The History of a Very Distinguished Family by Waud, A. R.
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.
