dresser

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹɛsə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛsə(ɹ)

From Middle English dressure, dressor, dressour, a borrowing from Old French drecëur, drecëure, from the verb dresser.

dresser (plural dressers)

2. (UK) An item of kitchen furniture, like a cabinet with shelves, for storing crockery or utensils.
   • 1847, Longfellow, Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie:

     The pewter plates on the dresser / Caught and reflected the flame, as shields of armies the sunshine.

   • 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “chapter 2”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

     But it went through her like a flash of hot fire when, in passing, he lurched against the dresser, setting the tins rattling, and clutched at the white pot knobs for support.

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 29:

     The other room was a kitchen, with an open fireplace, a safe, a dresser and a tin sink, with a tap from the tank outside.

4. (US) An item of bedroom furniture, like a low chest of drawers (bureau), often with a mirror.

From Middle English dresser, equivalent to dress +‎ -er.

dresser (plural dressers)

2. One who dresses in a particular way.

   He's a very snappy dresser.

4. (theater, film, television) A wardrobe assistant (who helps actors put on their costume).
6. A servant to royalty etc. who helps them with tasks such as dressing.

   Hypernym: body servant

   • 1947 January and February, “South African Royal Train”, in Railway Magazine, page 47:

     In the Queen's coach are the Queen's stateroom and bathroom, the Royal Family lounge, lady-in-waiting's compartment and bathroom, and dresser's room.

   • 2013, Craig Brown, Hello Goodbye Hello: A Circle of 101 Remarkable Meetings, page 107:

     The former royal butler Guy Hunting recalls the uphill task faced by the Princess's dresser, Isobel Mathieson, each morning. 'During her many years with Princess Margaret, the biggest challenge Isobel faced each day was separating the royal body from its bed.

8. (medicine) A surgeon's assistant who helps to dress wounds etc.
   • 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, section I:

     On the very day that I had come to this conclusion, I was standing at the Criterion Bar, when someone tapped me on the shoulder, and turning round I recognized young Stamford, who had been a dresser under me at Bart's.

   • 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 576:

     Boatmen and passengers — a Chinese assistant manager and a Tamil hospital dresser whom Crabbe had met before, two Malays of occupation undefined — helped Crabbe into the launch, but Vythilingam did not move, did not even seem to see.

10. (UK) A football hooligan who wears designer clothing; a casual.
    • 2015, Jay Allan, Bloody Casuals: Diary of a Football Hooligan:

      Because we were the first by a long way to turn trendy, we're still the only dressers in Scotland and our enemies were easily recognised: denims and DM's, skinheads and parkas.

12. A mechanical device used in grain mills for bolting.
14. (dated) A table or bench on which meat and other things are dressed, or prepared for use.
16. (mining) A kind of pick for shaping large coal.
18. One who dresses or prepares stone.

    Coordinate terms: mason, stonemason

    • 2015, Frank Bennett, Alfred Pinion, Roof Slating and Tiling, page 7:

      At the dressing sheds the slate-dresser saws the blocks into various sizes and then splits the smaller units into sheets.

• redress

Inherited from Old French drecer, drecier, from Vulgar Latin *dīrectiāre (through a contracted form *drectio), from Latin dīrectus (“straight”), whence the adjective direct. Compare Catalan dreçar, Italian drizzare, Sicilian addizzari, Spanish aderezar, Norman dréchi, Friulian dreçâ.

• IPA^(key): /dʁɛ.se/ ~ /dʁe.se/

• Audio:

  (file)

dresser

1. (transitive) to raise, to erect, to build
2. (transitive) to raise, to lift, to elevate
3. (transitive) to prepare; to draw up
   • 1789 October 21, Commune de Paris, “Loi martiale contre les attroupements”, in Sigismond Lacroix, editor, Actes de la Commune de Paris pendant la Révolution‎^[1], volume 2, published 1895, page 386:

     Il sera dressé, par les officiers municipaux, procès-verbal, qui contiendra le récit des faits.

     There shall be prepared, by the municipal officers, a procès-verbal which shall contain an account of facts.

4. (transitive) to pitch (a tent)
5. (transitive) to set, to lay out

   Est-ce qu’il a dressé la table? ― Has he laid the table?

7. (transitive) to tame (lion etc), to break in (horse), to train (an animal)
8. (reflexive) to stand

• dresser l’oreille

• adresser

• “dresser”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From dress +‎ -er.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdrɛsər(ə)/

dresser

1. (Late Middle English, rare) leader, guide

• English: dresser

• “dresser, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

dresser m

1. indefinite plural of dress

dresser

1. present of dresse

dresser

1. Alternative form of drecier

This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. The forms that would normally end in *-ss, *-sss, *-sst are modified to s, s, st. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.