First recorded in 1860–65
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Swiftly tiring of life in the military, he found a job as a window dresser at La Rinascente - a department store in Milan - where he moved swiftly through the ranks.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2025
After graduation, she moved to London, where she worked as a window dresser.
From Salon ● Nov. 30, 2022
After university and military service, Armani worked as a window dresser at the upmarket La Rinascente department store in Milan in 1957 before becoming a menswear designer and eventually launching his label in 1975.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 15, 2020
“I can channel the artistry as the window dresser Molina and exude the seductive allure of his muse and tormentor the Spider Woman and honor the diva saviors of my youth: Chita, Conchita and Vanessa!”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2020
But the climax was reached when I found it in a drug-store window, where the window dresser had placed it over another placard, the advertisement of a well known patent remedy.
From From Pillar to Post Leaves from a Lecturer's Note-Book by Bangs, John Kendrick
Peter was an electrician and Helmut a window-dresser, so they combined their skills to canny effect.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2018
In 1988, he signed a licensing deal with Giorgio Armani, another self-made tycoon, who had started out as a window-dresser at a department store in Milan.
From The Guardian ● May 10, 2018
But she found professional dance too cutthroat and became a window-dresser for stores like ABC Home & Carpet.
From New York Times ● Jan. 16, 2013
In June 1929, the Episcopal liberal weekly The Churchman published an attack on Tsar Hays, called him a "window-dresser," suggested that he was an "office-boy" rather than "tsar."
From Time Magazine Archive
Marie Louise turned and came up like a wax image on casters pulled forward by an invisible window-dresser.
From The Cup of Fury A Novel of Cities and Shipyards by Raleigh, Henry
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.
