different between uncover vs undress

English

Etymology

From Middle English uncoveren, equivalent to un- +? cover.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?n?k?v?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n?k?v?(?)/
• Rhymes: -?v?(r)

Verb

uncover (third-person singular simple present uncovers, present participle uncovering, simple past and past participle uncovered)

1. To remove a cover from.

   The model railway was uncovered.

2. To reveal the identity of.

   The murderer has finally been uncovered.

3. To show openly; to disclose; to reveal.
4. (reflexive, intransitive) To remove one's hat or cap as a mark of respect.
   • 1824, Town and Country Tales (page 115)

     Alfred, surprised to meet his father, whom he thought absent from home, […] stood, holding his firelock in one hand, and his hat in the other, having uncovered himself as soon as he perceived his father.
5. (reflexive, intransitive) To expose the genitalia.
6. (military, transitive) To expose (lines of formation of troops) successively by the wheeling to right or left of the lines in front.

Synonyms

• (to show openly): expose, uncloak; see also Thesaurus:reveal
• (to remove one's hat or cap): doff, uncoif, unhat; see also Thesaurus:undress

Antonyms

• cover up

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English undressen, equivalent to un- +? dress. Compare Old English uns?r?dan (“to undress”, literally “un-shroud”).

Pronunciation

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

Verb

undress (third-person singular simple present undresses, present participle undressing, simple past and past participle undressed)

1. (reflexive) To remove one's clothing. [from 16th c.]
2. (intransitive) To remove one’s clothing. [from 17th c.]

3. (transitive) To remove the clothing of (someone). [from 17th c.]

4. (transitive, figuratively) To strip of something. [from 17th c.]
5. To take the dressing, or covering, from.

Derived terms

• undressable, undress with one's eyes

Translations

Antonyms

• dress

Noun

undress (uncountable)

1. (now archaic or historical) Partial or informal dress for women, as worn in the home rather than in public.
   • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, I.20:

     Here he had not waited above ten minutes, when Emilia entered in a most inchanting undress, with all the graces of nature playing about her person, and in a moment rivetted the chains of his slavery beyond the power of accident to unbind.

2. (now archaic or historical) Informal clothing for men, as opposed to formal or ceremonial wear.
3. Now more specifically, a state of having few or no clothes on.
   • 1855-57, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit

     The visitor, observing that she held the door on the inside, and that, when the uncle tried to open it, there was a sharp adjuration of 'Don't, stupid!' and an appearance of loose stocking and flannel, concluded that the young lady was in an undress.

Translations

Anagrams

• drusens, sunders