dress down

verb

dressed down; dressing down; dresses down

transitive verb

: to reprove severely

intransitive verb

: to dress casually especially for reasons of fashion

Synonyms

• scold
• lecture
• reprimand
• rail (at or against)
• call down
• blame
• chew out
• criticize
• bawl out
• rant (at)
• read the riot act (to)

Examples of dress down in a Sentence

dressed down for boorish behavior at the dance

Recent Examples on the Web

For the first stretch of Erupcja, Charli almost dissolves into the screen, not like an outsize personality who’s dressing down for a part, but like someone who isn’t able to repurpose her considerable ability to hold our attention — or to give us any sense of what’s on her character’s mind. —Alison Willmore, Vulture, 5 Sep. 2025

While everyone else is dressing up, Sabally is dressing down, in the best way: a cool, '90s Princess Diana kind of way. —Tiana Randall, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2025

Yet, they can still be dressed down with a tank top or T-shirt. —Robin Raven, Travel + Leisure, 13 Aug. 2025

The filmmaker dressed down her office-siren-adjacent take on business casual with a black rope choker necklace and silver dangly earrings, and covered her hair with a black bandana. —Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 13 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1852, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Rhymes for dress down

• adown
• blowdown
• breakdown
• countdown
• crackdown
• crosstown
• downtown
• drawdown
• dropdown
• facedown
• godown
• hometown

Kids Definition

dress down

verb

1

: to criticize severely

2

: to dress casually