window dresser

American

noun

a person employed to trim the display windows of a store.

window-dresser British

noun

a person employed to design and build up a display in a shop window

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of window dresser

First recorded in 1860–65

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.

Arregui is a principled revolutionary dedicated to his cause, while Molina is a gay, flamboyant window dresser who’s been arrested for public indecency.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 23, 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

Lindbergh, born in 1944 in Lissa, Germany, worked as a window dresser for a department store before enrolling in the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts in the early 1960s.

From BBC • Sep. 4, 2019

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

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023