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
She got kicked out of a succession of schools, then married an openly gay window dresser named John Parker at the age of 19 — a marriage that was, unsurprisingly, short-lived.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2020
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 was window dresser for a gents' furnishing store up to a few weeks ago, but it—it changed hands.
From Star-Dust by Hurst, Fannie
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
By presenting common things, familiar to commercial art, in a different context, Lichtenstein, a onetime window-dresser, argues that he is creating something new.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was beautiful to see, and the pride of the window-dresser of the Golden Eagle Clothing Store.
From In Our Town by Gruger, Frederic Rodrigo
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.
