To dress means to put on clothes. You dress yourself each morning, choosing what to wear for the day. Parents help young children dress until they learn to do it themselves. Someone might dress warmly for winter weather or dress lightly for a hot summer day.

The word also describes clothing itself. A dress is a piece of clothing, usually worn by girls and women, that covers the body from shoulders to legs in one connected garment. Dresses come in many styles: fancy dresses for special occasions, casual dresses for everyday wear, or long, flowing dresses for formal events.

When you dress up, you wear fancier or more formal clothes than usual, perhaps for a wedding or school presentation. To dress down means the opposite: wearing casual, comfortable clothes. If someone is well-dressed, their clothes look neat, appropriate, and put together nicely.

The word can mean preparing other things too. Cooks dress a salad by adding oil and vinegar. Doctors dress a wound by cleaning it and wrapping it with bandages. Hunters dress game animals after a hunt, preparing the meat properly.

Outside of clothing, dress appears in phrases like dress rehearsal, which is the final practice before a performance where everyone wears their actual costumes and runs through everything exactly as it will happen on show night.