dresser

¹

[ dres-er ]

noun

1. a dressing table or bureau.
2. a sideboard or set of shelves for dishes and cooking utensils.
3. Obsolete. a table or sideboard on which food is dressed for serving.

dresser

²

[ dres-er ]

noun

1. a person who dresses.
2. a person employed to dress actors, care for costumes, etc., at a theater, television studio, or the like.
3. Chiefly British. a surgeon's assistant.
4. a person who dresses in a particular manner, as specified:

   a fancy dresser;

   a careful and distinctive dresser.

5. any of several tools or devices used in dressing materials.
6. Metalworking.
   1. a block, fitting into an anvil, on which pieces are forged.
   2. a mallet for shaping sheet metal.
7. a tool for truing the surfaces of grinding wheels.

dresser

¹

/ ˈdrɛsə /

noun

1. a person who dresses in a specified way

   a fashionable dresser

2. theatre a person employed to assist actors in putting on and taking off their costumes
3. a tool used for dressing stone or other materials
4. a person who assists a surgeon during operations
5. See window-dresser

dresser

²

/ ˈdrɛsə /

noun

1. a set of shelves, usually also with cupboards or drawers, for storing or displaying dishes, etc
2. a chest of drawers for storing clothing in a bedroom or dressing room, often having a mirror on the top

Word History and Origins

Origin of dresser¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English dresso(u)r, dressur(e), “sideboard,” from Anglo-French; Middle French dresseur, Old French dreçor, dreceor(e), equivalent to dreci(ier) “to dress ” + -ore -ory ²

Origin of dresser²

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English: “guide; director”; dress, -er ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of dresser¹

C14 dressour, from Old French dreceore, from drecier to arrange; see dress

Example Sentences

On the other hand, ‘Most women who are 81 do not have access to groomers and dressers.’

From Los Angeles Times

Mr Gray, from Shipley, who started working as a stone dresser in 1997, used power and hand tools to make paving slabs from reclaimed quarried stone.

From BBC

But after some time, she walks out of her dresser decked in a tan football shirt and a faux fur bucket hat, in her full prowess, ready to start anew.

From Los Angeles Times

They have everything: armoires, dressers, tables, whatever you could possibly want.

From Los Angeles Times

As they rounded the rest of the house — bedrooms with dressers secured to the wall, a living room with paintings of sailboats, a fish tank — Hamilton-Royse asked if LyBurtus felt any better.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• closet
• wardrobe