dress up
verb
Simple meaning
Put on special clothes to appear particularly appealing and attractive.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
drehsuhpSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdɹɛˈsʌp
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Put on special clothes to appear particularly appealing and attractive
“She never dresses up, even when she goes to the opera.”
intransitive
To put on special or fancy clothes.
intransitiveoften with 'as'
To put on a costume portraying oneself as a particular type of character or well-known person.
Put a caparison on
Dress in a costume
“We dressed up for Halloween as pumpkins.”
transitive
To decorate; to prettify.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Put on special clothes to appear particularly appealing and attractive
Used this way, dress up is a common word with a mildly favourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Putverb
“She never dresses up, even when she goes to the opera.”
Dressverb
“We dressed up for Halloween as pumpkins.”
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.