dress up v 1: put on special clothes to appear particularly appealing and attractive; "She never dresses up, even when she goes to the opera"; "The young girls were all fancied up for the party" [syn: overdress, dress up, fig out, fig up, deck up, gussy up, fancy up, trick up, deck out, trick out, prink, attire, get up, rig out, tog up}, tog out] [ant: dress down, underdress] 2: make something appear superficially attractive; "The researcher tried to dress up the uninteresting data"; "Don't try to dress up the unpleasant truth" [syn: dress up, window-dress] 3: put a caparison on; "caparison the horses for the festive occasion" [syn: caparison, bard, barde, dress up] 4: dress in a costume; "We dressed up for Halloween as pumpkins" [syn: costume, dress up] 5: dress in a certain manner; "She dresses in the latest Paris fashion"; "he dressed up in a suit and tie" [syn: dress, dress up]

dress up v. 1a. To put on best or special clothes. Billy hated being dressed up and took off his best suit as soon as he got home from church. 1b. To put on a costume for fun or clothes for a part in a play. Mary was dressed up to play Cinderella in her school play. 2. To make (something) look different; make (something) seem better or more important. A fresh coat of paint will dress up the old bicycle very much. Tommy dressed up the story of what he did on vacation and made it seem twice as interesting as it was.

dress up verb Date: 1635 transitive verb 1. to make more attractive, glamorous, or fancy <dress up a plain dessert with a rich chocolate sauce> 2. a. to attire in best or formal clothes b. to attire in clothes suited to a particular role 3. to present in the most attractive or impressive light <a fiasco dressed up as a triumph> intransitive verb to get dressed up

dress up 1. If you dress up or dress yourself up, you put on different clothes, in order to make yourself look smarter than usual or to disguise yourself. You do not need to dress up for dinner... Little girls dress up as angels for fiestas. PHRASAL VERB: V P, V P in/as n 2. If you dress someone up, you give them special clothes to wear, in order to make them look smarter or to disguise them. Mother loved to dress me up. PHRASAL VERB: V n P 3. If you dress something up, you try to make it seem more attractive, acceptable, or interesting than it really is. Politicians dress up their ruthless ambition as a pursuit of the public good... However you dress it up, a bank only exists to lend money. PHRASAL VERB: V P n (not pron), V n P 4. see also dressed up, dressing-up

90 Moby Thesaurus words for "dress up": adorn, apparel, array, attire, beautify, bedeck, bedizen, belie, blazon, camouflage, clad, clothe, color, dandify, deck, deck out, decorate, disguise, distort, dizen, doll up, dress, embellish, emblazon, embroider, enclothe, enrich, falsify, fancy up, fig out, fix up, fudge, furbish, garb, garble, garment, garnish, get up, gild, gloss, gloss over, grace, gussy up, mask, miscite, miscolor, misquote, misreport, misrepresent, misstate, ornament, overdress, overstate, paint, pervert, prank, prank up, preen, prettify, pretty up, primp, primp up, prink, prink up, rag out, raiment, redecorate, redo, refurbish, set off, set out, slant, slick, slick up, smarten, smarten up, smug, spiff, spruce up, strain, titivate, toggle, trick out, trick up, trim, twist, understate, varnish, warp, whitewash

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