dressing

Material applied to a wound for protection or therapy.

Noun

  1. Material applied to a wound for protection or therapy.
    • She removed Stranleigh’s coat with a dexterity that aroused his imagination. The elder woman returned with dressings and a sponge, which she placed on a chair. - 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 5, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
  2. A sauce, especially a cold one for salads.
    • I was even more excited to tailor it with a choice of dressings — blue cheese, ranch, French, Russian, Italian, creamy Italian. - 2021 July 21, Gabrielle Hamilton, “A Salad So Good You Can Eat It for Breakfast”, in The...
  3. Something added to the soil as a fertilizer etc.
  4. The activity of getting dressed.
    • Considered thus, the performance is a translation into images of bodies on display, as is well demonstrated by Monsieur Jourdain's repeated dressings and undressings. - 2004, Kathryn Banks, Joseph Harris, Exposure:...
  5. Dress; raiment; especially, ornamental habiliment or attire.
    • Women ought to repair the losses , time and years have made in their features, with dressings - 1609 December (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman. A Comœdie. […]”, in...
  6. The stuffing of fowls, pigs, etc.

    Synonyms: forcemeat

  7. Gum, starch, etc., used in stiffening or finishing silk, linen, and other fabrics.
  8. An ornamental finish, such as a moulding around doors, windows, or on a ceiling.
  9. Castigation; scolding; a dressing down.
    • "I once saw what a dressing he gave a silly chattering fool, that answered his challenge some time before." - 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 71:
  10. The process of extracting metals or other valuable components from minerals.
  11. Manure that's applied to one's garden.

Origin

From Middle English dressing, dressinge, dressynge, equivalent to dress + -ing.

Forms

dressings

Derived

blue cheese dressing boiled dressing Catalina dressing cross-dressing dopamine dressing dressing-bell dressing-boy dressing case dressing code dressing-down dressing forceps dressing gown dressing-gown dressing jacket dressing mirror dressing sack dressing station dressing stick dressing table dressing-up field dressing freedom dressing French dressing hairdressing

Verb

  1. present participle and gerund of dress

Origin

From Middle English dressynge, dressande, equivalent to dress + -ing.