ˈdressing, vbl. n.
[f. dress v. + -ing1.]
1. a. The action of the vb. dress, in various senses.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 131/2 Dressynge, directio. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 201 b, The spouse..hath many women to adorne and dresse her, and yet she werketh with them to her owne dressynge. 1617 Hieron Wks. II. 207 One stroke may cause it [a wound], but many stirrings and dressings cannot cure it. 1712 J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 105 The Words Dressing, Leveling..signify the Action of harrowing or raking the Ground, to lay it every where smooth and eaven. 1832 Regul. Instr. Cavalry ii. 6 Dressing is a progressive operation..by which any number of men are correctly aligned. 1862 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 101 There is no elaborate dressing for dinner here. |
b. dressing up (see
dress v. 7 d); also
attrib.| 1852 C. M. Yonge Two Guardians xiii. 229 What difference can my dressing up..make to any one? 1864 Mrs. Gaskell Wives & Dau. (1866) I. xiii. 152 Molly had a private dressing-up for the Miss Brownings' benefit. 1868 L. M. Alcott Little Women 14 Meg..was as much a child as ever about ‘dressing-up’ frolics. 1944 M. Paneth Branch Street 92 We got hold of a big box full of old dressing-up material. 1950 A. Wilson Such Darling Dodos 130 The strange old hats and frocks in the dressing-up box in the nursery. 1957 R. Hoggart Uses of Literacy ii. 58 The game of dressing-up—trailing round the streets in grown-ups' cast-off clothes. 1964 D. Gray Devil wore Scarlet xi. 105 A huge trunk, which was evidently the ‘dressing-up’ box. It was filled with old clothes of every sort. 1968 P. Dickinson Skin Deep vii. 142 A good old-fashioned attic, where people have been putting things..to get them out of the way, old wickerwork cots and dressing-up clothes and iron bedsteads. |
c. Mil. Proper alignment of troops.
Cf. dress v. 4.
| 1792 [see attention 5]. 1802 C. James Mil. Dict. s.v., Dressing of a battalion after the halt, is to bring all its relative parts in a line with the point..towards which it was directed to move. 1889 Infantry Drill i. 9 He will take up his dressing in line by moving..till he is just able to distinguish the lower part of the face of the second man beyond him. 1966 Listener 3 Mar. 317/3 ‘Come on, wake up. Get your dressing.’ The familiar barks jerked their limbs into making the mechanical actions. |
2. Applied to various technical processes in arts and manufactures. See
quots. and the
vb.| 1540 R. Hyrde Vives' Instr. Chr. Wom. i. ii. (R.), The dressing of wooll hath beene euer an honest occupation for a good woman. 1611 Cotgr., Affilement..a dressing, or stiffening with wire. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 264 Hides and Leather..of their own dressing. 1745 Gentl. Mag. 24 A new composition for careening or dressing of ships, to preserve them from the Worms. 1792 A. Young Trav. France 341 The corn of England, as far as respects dressing, that is cleaning from dirt, chaff, seeds of weeds, &c. is as much better than that of France. 1822 J. Flint Lett. Amer. 7 Washing and dressing of shirts, neckcloths, &c. |
3. ironically. A drubbing, a beating; chastisement, castigation, by blows or words. Also with
down (see
dress v. 9).
| 1769 in 10th Rep. Hist. MS. Comm. App. i. 413 For this he got a very severe dressing from Ld. North. 1809 Malkin tr. Gil Blas v. i. (Rtldg.) 191 His fingers itched to give me another dressing. 1854 A. Fonblanque in Life vi. (1874) 511 If our Generals do not give the enemy a dressing. 1860 Thackeray Round. Papers, Screens in Din. Rooms (1876) 57 A criticism..in which an Irish writer had given me a dressing for a certain lecture on Swift. 1876 Coursing Cal. 223 Blucher was much faster in the stretches than Folly, who got a genuine dressing down. 1893 W. K. Post Harvard Stories 70 The poor man got such a dressing down that Randolph presented him with full forgiveness. 1925 E. F. Norton Fight for Everest, 1924 21 The following morning, when they were coming up for a second dressing I thought I would add a little dressing down on my own account. 1956 A. L. Rowse Early Churchills iv. 73 Sir Winston..gave Captain Thornhill a dressing down in open court. |
4. concr. That which is used in the preceding actions and processes; that with which any thing or person is dressed for use or ornament:
e.g. a. Cookery. The seasoning substance used in cooking; stuffing; the sauce, etc., used in preparing a dish, a salad, etc.
b. Personal decorations; vestments, dress; trimming.
c. Agric. The manure or compost spread over or ploughed into land in preparing it for a crop.
d. Surg. The remedies, bandages, etc. with which a wound or sore is dressed.
e. Arch. Projecting mouldings on a surface.
f. Glaze, size, or stiffening, used in the ‘finishing’ of textile fabrics; etc.
| a. 1504 Nottingham Rec. III. 319 For floure and peper, and dressing. 1853 A. Soyer Pantroph. 75 Lettuces may also be eaten with a dressing of gravy and pickles. |
| b. 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. I. 26 Shee..would..put on her dressings, and weare her attire. 1626 T. H[awkins] Caussin's Holy Crt. 11 One piece of her gaudy dressings. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. vi, Tom began..scrutinizing the dressings of the flies [for fishing]. 1881 Besant & Rice Chapl. of Fleet i. iii, Trees..in their beautiful spring dressing. |
| c. 1735 Berkeley Querist §199 Wks. 1871 III. 371 Vegetables..ploughed in for a dressing of land. 1816 Act 56 Geo. III, c. 50 §11 Any Manure, Compost, Ashes, Sea⁓weed, or other Dressings intended for such Lands. |
| d. 1713 Parnell Guardian No. 66 ¶2 To tear off the dressings, as I may say, from the wounds. 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. iii. iii. 95 Dressings for blisters. |
| e. 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 584 Dressings, all mouldings projecting beyond the naked of walls and ceilings. 1843 in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) III. 214 The dressings round them [doors] to be of scagliola. |
| f. 1823 J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 72 The dressing thereof [sail-cloth], being a compound of meal and lime. 1853 C. Morfit Tanning, etc. 181 The hides..are put through the dressings, that is, subjected to the action of fermentable barley water. |
5. attrib. and
Comb. a. Employed in or connected with attiring the person, as
dressing-bag,
dressing-basket,
dressing-block,
dressing-boy,
dressing-chair,
dressing-closet,
dressing-cloth,
dressing-glass,
dressing-jacket,
dressing-maid,
dressing-robe;
dressing-bell,
-gong, one rung as the signal for dressing for dinner;
dressing-comb, a comb used for dressing (see
dress v. 13 b) the hair;
† dressing-plate, silver toilet service (
obs.);
dressing-sack (
U.S.), a dressing-jacket. Also
dressing-box, -room, -table, etc.
b. Pertaining to, or appropriated to, the treatment of various articles, as
dressing-machine,
dressing-shed,
dressing-shop;
dressing-bench,
-floors: see
quots.;
dressing-forceps, forceps used in applying and removing surgical dressings;
dressing-house, a house for dressing ore;
dressing-station, a place at which wounds are dressed.
c. Used in preparing food: see
dressing-board, -knife.
d. For ‘dressing’, as
dressing hide,
dressing leather,
dressing wheat.
| 1865 Trollope Belton Est. vii. 75 He..packed his coats, and *dressing-bag, and desk. |
| 1849 Marryat Valerie xii, The *dressing-bell has rung. |
| 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., *Dressing-bench, a bricklayer's bench having a cast-iron plate on which the sun-dried brick is rubbed, polished, and beaten with a paddle to make it symmetrical. |
| 1632 Field & Massinger Fatal Dowry ii. ii, His *dressing-block, upon whom my lord lays all his clothes..ere he vouchsafes them his own person. |
| 1712 Steele Spect. No. 478 ¶13 A looking-glass and a *dressing chair. |
| 1668 Davenant Man's the Master Wks. (1673) 332 Whether she be some Skeleton whose Beauties lye at night upon her *dressing-cloth. |
| 1790 Pennsylvania Packet 19 Apr. 4/2 John Murduck..has likewise for Sale..*Dressing, rake, and tail combs. 1881 C. C. Harrison Woman's Handiwork i. 57 Crewels..combed into fluffiness by a coarse dressing-comb. |
| 1894 Labour Commission Gloss., A *dressing-floors (not floor) is a surface works where the tin stuff as it comes from the shaft of the mine is first subjected to various crushing processes..and then ‘washed’..in order that the tin may be separated from alien matter. |
| 1826 A. C. Hutchison Pract. Obs. Surg. (ed. 2) 180 By dilating the meatus urinarius with a common pair of *dressing forceps. 1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 772 Passing a pair of dressing-forceps through the joint to the lowest part of its outer aspect. |
| 1714 Lond. Gaz. No. 5214/3 *Dressing Glasses, Union Suits, Dressing Boxes. 1823 J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 121 Look for yourself in a mirror, or dressing glass. |
| 1872 Rep. Vermont Board Agric. 628 The same track takes it [sc. the ore] to the *dressing house at the foot of the hill. |
| 1855 A. Manning Old Chelsea Bun-House xiv. 239 Prue, in her *Dressing-Jacket. |
| 1895 Times 2 Jan. 13/4 Light English sole and *dressing leather. |
| 1795 Hull Advertiser 5 Sept. 2/1 Thrashing and *Dressing Machines. |
| 1822 W. Irving Braceb. Hall (1845) 29 Having been *dressing-maid..to the late Mrs. Bracebridge. |
| 1716 Lady M. W. Montagu Lett. 16 Aug. (1887) I. 107, I had wickedness enough to covet St. Ursula's pearl necklaces..and wished she herself converted into *dressing-plate. |
| 1884 Health Exhib. Catal. 38 A *dressing shed, where the work of unhairing the skins takes place. |
| 1894 Sir E. Wood in Daily News 1 Oct. 6/2 The farm used by the doctors as a *dressing-station. 1915 A. D. Gillespie Let. 21 Mar. in Lett. from Flanders (1916) 61 A man who gets hit, not dangerously, with a dressing station handy, and a doctor to attend to him at once. |
| 1709 Wakes Colne (Essex) Overseer's Acc. (MS.), 3 peckes of *dressinge wheat. |
e. Printing (see
dress v. 3 b):
dressing-bench,
dressing-block,
dressing-hook.
f. Type-founding (see
dress v. 13 j):
dressing machine,
dressing plane,
dressing stick.
| 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xix. 183 The Dressing-Bench. |
| Ibid. ix. 31 The Dressing-Block..is to run over the Face of the Form, and..to be gently knock't upon.., that such Letters as may chance to stand up higher than the rest may be pressed down. |
| Ibid. xx. 184 The Dressing-Hook. |
| 1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 699/2 A machine, which produces types that do not require rubbing or dressing... The casting machine and the dressing machine are..mounted on a common frame... The letters pass through a channel one by one into the dressing machine. |
| 1695 in H. Hart Century of Typography (1900) 55 Utensils for Printing. 4 Dressing Planes. 3 Dressing Blocks. |
| 1683 Dressing-stick [see dress v. 13 j]. |