overdress
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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overdresses,
present (3rd person singular)
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overdressed,
past participle, past
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overdressing
present participle
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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
To suit the dress demands the actor's art, Yet there are some who overdress the part.
From A Book of the Play Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character by Dutton Cook
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
They wear bodices and overdresses of the very palest pink, flowered with deep-pink roses.
From Patriotic Plays and Pageants for Young People by Constance D'Arcy Mackay
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 Robert Grant
The first group to enter is the pale-violet group, ladies-in-waiting, who wear pale-violet bodices and overdresses over white.
From Patriotic Plays and Pageants for Young People by Constance D'Arcy Mackay
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 Benjamin Perley Poore
And the older guests, slightly overdressed for the occasion, can be seen smuggling their ties back into their pockets.
From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2024
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
Literary acoustic and piano numbers are gracefully brushed with elegant strings without feeling overdressed.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 13, 2018
Monique, overdressed as usual, wore a shiny gold top with tight black stretch pants and black heels.
From "Forged by Fire" by Sharon M. Draper
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
One of the most common errors home cooks make with salad is overdressing it, says Andrew Taylor, a chef and owner of Eventide Oyster Co. in Portland, Maine.
From New York Times ● Nov. 10, 2021
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
Formerly, overdressing in the country was reprobated as quite vulgar; but now, even persons of birth and fashion are guilty of this want of taste and sense.
From Tales and Novels — Volume 10 by Maria Edgeworth
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.
