Meaning & use
dressed
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Meanings
adjectiveafter a verb
Wearing clothes, especially clothes suited to an occasion or of a particular style.
Grammar: Usually follows be or get: she got dressed; a well-dressed man.
Patterns
- dressed in something
- dressed as something
- dressed for something
- get dressed
The children were dressed in their best clothes for the wedding.
She came to the door dressed in a bathrobe.
He was dressed as a pirate for the party.
adjectivebefore a noun
Prepared for use or eating, as with salad that has had dressing added or a bird that has been cleaned for cooking.
Grammar: Often comes before a noun: a dressed salad, a dressed crab.
Patterns
- a dressed salad
- dressed with something
The lightly dressed salad was served with warm bread.
A dressed crab came on a bed of lettuce.
The butcher sold dressed chickens, ready for the oven.
verbtransitive or intransitive
Past form of dress: to put clothes on yourself or another person.
Grammar: Past tense and past participle of dress: she dressed the baby; he dressed quickly.
Patterns
- dress someone
- dress for something
She dressed quickly and ran out the door.
He dressed his son for school.
The nurse dressed the wound with a clean bandage.
Common combinations
- get dressed
- I need to get dressed before the guests arrive.
- smartly dressed
- A smartly dressed man stood at the door.
- dressed in black
- The mourners were all dressed in black.
- dressed up
- The kids were dressed up as animals.
- well dressed
- She is always well dressed for work.
- dressed for the weather
- Make sure you are dressed for the weather.
Synonyms and how they differ
- clothed
- Clothed is more formal or literary and focuses on having clothes on, not on style or occasion.
- attired
- Attired is formal and slightly old-fashioned, usually describing a particular outfit.
- clad
- Clad is literary and often followed by in a specific material or garment.
- garbed
- Garbed suggests a distinctive or unusual costume, so it is more specialised than dressed.
Opposites
Word family
- dress verb
- to put clothes on
- dress noun
- a piece of clothing worn by women and girls, or clothing in general
- undressed adjective
- not wearing clothes, or served without dressing
- overdressed adjective
- wearing clothes that are too formal for the occasion
- dressing noun
- a sauce for salad, or a covering for a wound
Commonly confused: dressed or addressed?
dressed vs addressed
Addressed means spoken to or written to, while dressed means wearing clothes or prepared with dressing.
Practice
The guests arrived ___ in evening gowns and dark suits.
Choose one answer.
Dressed means wearing clothes of a certain kind, which fits evening wear. Addressed means spoken to, and dresses is a noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “dressed”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.