DRESS, v.t. pret. and pp. dressed or drest. [L.]

1. That which is used as the covering or ornament of the body; clothes; garments; habit; as, the dress of a lady is modest and becoming; a gaudy dress is evidence of a false taste.
2. A suit of clothes; as, the lady has purchased an elegant dress.
3. Splendid clothes; habit of ceremony; as, a full dress.
4. Skill in adjusting dress, or the practice of wearing elegant clothing; as, men of dress. – Pope.

1. To make straight or a straight line; to adjust to a right line. We have the primary sense in the military phrase, dress your ranks. Hence the sense, to put in order.
2. To adjust; to put in good order; as, to dress the beds of a garden. Sometimes to till or cultivate. – Gen. ii. Deut. xxviii.
3. To put in good order, as a wounded limb; to cleanse a wound, and to apply medicaments. The surgeon dresses the limb or the wound.
4. To prepare, in a general sense; to put in the condition desired; to make suitable or fit; as, to dress meat; to dress leather or cloth; to dress a lamp: but we, in the latter case, generally use trim. To dress hemp or flax, is to break and clean it.
5. To curry, rub and comb; as, to dress a horse: or to break or tame and prepare for service, as used by Dryden; but this is unusual.
6. To put the body in order, or in a suitable condition; to put on clothes; as, he dressed himself for breakfast.
7. To put on rich garments; to adorn; to deck; to embellish; as, the lady dressed herself for a ball. To dress up, is to clothe pompously or elegantly; as, to dress up with tinsel. The sense of dress depends on its application. To dress the body, to dress meat, and to dress leather, are very different senses, but all uniting in the sense of preparing or fitting for use.

1. To arrange in a line; as, look to the right and dress.
2. To pay particular regard to dress or raiment. – Bramston.

1. To direct; to put right or straight; to regulate; to order.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   At all times thou shalt bless God and pray Him to dress thy ways. Chaucer.

   * Dress is used reflexively in Old English, in sense of "to direct one's step; to address one's self."

   To Grisild again will I me dresse. Chaucer.

2. To arrange one's self in due position in a line of soldiers; -- the word of command to form alignment in ranks; as, Right, dress!
3. That which is used as the covering or ornament of the body; clothes; garments; habit; apparel.
   
   
   "In your soldier's dress." Shak.
4. To arrange in exact continuity of line, as soldiers; commonly to adjust to a straight line and at proper distance; to align; as, to dress the ranks.
5. To clothe or apparel one's self; to put on one's garments; to pay particular regard to dress; as, to dress quickly.
   
   
   "To dress for a ball." Latham.

   To flaunt, to dress, to dance, to thrum. Tennyson.

   To dress to the right, To dress to the left, To dress on the center (Mil.), to form alignment with reference to the soldier on the extreme right, or in the center, of the rank, who serves as a guide.

6. A lady's gown; as, silk or a velvet dress.
7. To treat methodically with remedies, bandages, or curative appliances, as a sore, an ulcer, a wound, or a wounded or diseased part.
8. Attention to apparel, or skill in adjusting it.
   
   

   Men of pleasure, dress, and gallantry. Pope.

9. To adjust; to put in good order; to arrange; specifically: (a) To prepare for use; to fit for any use; to render suitable for an intended purpose; to get ready; as, to dress a slain animal; to dress meat; to dress leather or cloth; to dress or trim a lamp; to dress a garden; to dress a horse, by currying and rubbing; to dress grain, by cleansing it; in mining and metallurgy, to dress ores, by sorting and separating them.
   
   

   And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it. Gen. ii. 15.

   When he dresseth the lamps he shall burn incense. Ex. xxx. 7.

   Three hundred horses . . . smoothly dressed. Dryden.

   Dressing their hair with the white sea flower. Tennyson.

   If he felt obliged to expostulate, he might have dressed his censures in a kinder form. Carlyle.

   (b)

10. The system of furrows on the face of a millstone.
    
    
    Knight.

    Dress circle. See under Circle. -- Dress parade (Mil.), a parade in full uniform for review.