different between dress vs backless

English

Etymology

From Middle English dressen, from Old French dresser, drescer, drecier (“to erect, set up, arrange, dress”), from Medieval Latin *directi?, an assumed frequentative, from Latin directus (“straight, direct”), perfect passive participle of d?rig? (“straighten, direct”), from dis- (“asunder, in pieces, apart, in two”) + reg? (“make straight, rule”). See direct.

Pronunciation

• enPR: dr?s, IPA^(key): /d??s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Verb

dress (third-person singular simple present dresses, present participle dressing, simple past dressed, past participle dressed or (obsolete) drest)

1. (transitive) To fit out with the necessary clothing; to clothe, put clothes on (something or someone). [from 15^thc.]
2. (intransitive) To clothe oneself; to put on clothes. [from 18^thc.]
3. (sports, transitive, intransitive) To put on the uniform and equipment necessary to play the game.

4. (intransitive, euphemistic) Of a man, to allow the genitals to fall to one side or other within the trousers. [from 20^thc.]

5. (transitive) To prepare (food) for cooking, especially by seasoning it. [from 15^thc.]
   • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, Scene 3,^[2]

     Here, love; thou seest how diligent I am,

     To dress thy meat myself, and bring it thee:

   • 1595, George Peele, The Old Wives’ Tale, The Malone Society Reprints, 1908, lines 142-143,^[3]

     OLD WOMAN. […] he sent all his men out of his Land.

     FROLICKE. Who drest his dinner then?

6. (obsolete, reflexive, intransitive) To prepare oneself; to make ready. [14^th-16^thc.]
7. To adorn, ornament. [from 15^thc.]
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, The Merman

     dressing their hair with the white sea flower

   • 1884, James Anthony Froude, Life of Carlyle

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

8. (nautical) To ornament (a ship) by hoisting the national colours at the peak and mastheads, and setting the jack forward; when "dressed full", the signal flags and pennants are added.
9. (transitive, theater, film, television) To prepare (a set) by installing the props, scenery, etc.
   • 2012, Marvin Silbersher, A Fistful of Stars (page 106)

     Mallory, all night long, single-handedly painted and dressed the set so that at eight o'clock Sunday morning when we arrived to make breakfast in the kitchen, there she was sound asleep on the davenport in the set, every prop in place.

11. (transitive) To treat (a wound, or wounded person). [from 15^thc.]
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.5:

      Daily she dressed him, and did the best / His grievous hurt to guarish, that she might […].

    • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island:

      […] he was deadly pale, and the blood-stained bandage round his head told that he had recently been wounded, and still more recently dressed.

12. To prepare for use; to fit for any use; to render suitable for an intended purpose; to get ready.

    to dress leather or cloth;? to dress a garden;? to dress grain, by cleansing it;? in mining and metallurgy, to dress ores, by sorting and separating them

    • When he dresseth the lamps he shall burn incense.

    • three hundred horses […] smoothly dressed

13. (transitive) To prepare the surface of (a material; usually stone or lumber).
14. (transitive) To manure (land).
15. (transitive) To bolt or sift flour.
16. (military, transitive, intransitive, sometimes imperative) To arrange in exact continuity of line, as soldiers; commonly to adjust to a straight line and at proper distance; to align.

    to dress the ranks

    Right, dress!

17. To break and train for use, as a horse or other animal.

Synonyms

• (clothe (something or somebody)): clothe, don; see also Thesaurus:clothe
• (clothe oneself): get dressed
• (prepare the surface of):
• (bandage (a wound)): bandage, put a bandage on, put a dressing on

Antonyms

• (clothe (something or somebody): strip, undress
• (clothe oneself): disrobe, get undressed, strip, undress

Derived terms

Related terms

• dressage

Descendants

• ? Sranan Tongo: dresi

Translations

Noun

dress (countable and uncountable, plural dresses)

1. (countable) An item of clothing (usually worn by a woman or young girl) which both covers the upper part of the body and includes skirts below the waist.

2. (uncountable) Apparel, clothing.

3. The system of furrows on the face of a millstone.
4. A dress rehearsal.

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ??? (doresu)
• ? Korean: ??? (deureseu)
• ? Norwegian: dress
• ? Pennsylvania German: Dress
• ? Scottish Gaelic: dreasa

Translations

See also

• ????

Further reading

• dress on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• dress in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• dress in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• dress at OneLook Dictionary Search
• “dress”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• “dress” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
• dress (adjective) in Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From English dress, from Middle English dressen, from Old French dresser, drescer, drecier (“to erect, set up, arrange, dress”), from either Medieval Latin d?r?cti? (“direction, aiming, correction”) or Vulgar Latin dir?cti?re, from Latin d?rectus (“straight, direct, directed”), from Proto-Italic *dwizrektos, perfect passive participle of d?rig? (“straighten, direct”), from Proto-Italic *dwizreg?, from both dis- (“asunder, in pieces, apart, in two”), from Proto-Italic *dwis-, from Proto-Indo-European *dwís (“twice, doubly, in two”) + reg? (“I make straight, rule”), from Proto-Italic *reg?, from Proto-Indo-European *h?ré?eti (“to straighten; right”), from *h?re?- (“to straighten, to right oneself, just”).

Noun

dress m (definite singular dressen, indefinite plural dresser, definite plural dressene)

1. (clothing) a suit (either formal wear, or leisure or sports wear)

Etymology 2

Verb

dress

1. imperative of dresse

References

• “dress” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From English dress (verb: kle på seg)

Noun

dress m (definite singular dressen, indefinite plural dressar, definite plural dressane)

1. (clothing) a suit (either formal wear, or leisure or sports wear)

References

• “dress” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

English

Etymology

back +? -less

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?bækl?s/

Adjective

backless (not comparable)

1. having no back, said of things that typically have backs, such as chairs or dresses

   a backless surgical gown

   • 1885, George Moore, A Mummer's Wife

     The apartment was almost dismantled; chairs lay backless about the floor amid china shepherdesses and toreadors; pictures were thrown over the sofa,...

2. (of a person) having an uncovered back, having a back that shows skin

Translations