does up

verb

present tense third-person singular of do up
1
as in adorns
to make more attractive by adding something that is beautiful or becoming the whole house had been done up for Halloween

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in clothes
to outfit with clothes and especially fine or special clothes on Wild West Day some of the women came to the office done up as showgirls, while the men were mostly outlaws

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in wears
to use up all the physical energy of all of this fussing about the wedding has done me up

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for does up
  1. adorns
  2. dresses
  3. wears
  4. decorates
  5. dresses up
  6. kills
  7. does in
  8. exhausts
Verb
  • Being the kind of person who adorns themselves compulsively opens you up to a slew of corny metaphors that, against your will, feel deeply relevant to you.
    — Julissa James, Los Angeles Times, 12 Aug. 2026
  • For the past two decades, Caneer has co-chaired an endowed swimming scholarship honoring his former coach, Dick Anderson, whose name also adorns the university’s swimming facility.
    — Daniel Libit, Sportico.com, 23 July 2026
Definition of adorns
Verb
  • Later, CeCe dresses her up in a pink tutu and makes up a dance for her kitten.
    — Parents, Parents, 31 July 2026
  • Regardless, men behaving in a repulsed or shocked way when a man dresses feminine or in women’s clothing is homophobic.
    — Joey Nolfi, Entertainment Weekly, 22 July 2026
Definition of dresses
Verb
  • Granted, save for one image on a TV screen, no one wears a Green Lantern mask or outfit in the Lanterns pilot, but the wheels of its story have been in motion for decades by the time its premise unfolds.
    — Siddhant Adlakha, Vulture, 17 Aug. 2026
  • Sadie Sink plays Jean Grey as a Gen Zer malcontent who wears a hoodie and whose affect suggests a steady diet of Sylvia Plath.
    — Peter Tonguette, The Washington Examiner, 15 Aug. 2026
Definition of wears
Verb
  • The print decorates a semi-sheer collarless evening jacket, an ideal day-to-night piece, according to Brock.
    — Ari Stark, Footwear News, 22 July 2026
  • The painting that decorates the ceiling, Apollo Slaying the Serpent Python, was created by the artist Eugène Delacroix.
    — News Desk, Artforum, 22 July 2026
Definition of decorates
Verb
  • This Amazon style has a similar polished pointed-toe design that not only dresses up your outfit but also elongates your legs.
    — Nicol Natale, PEOPLE, 30 June 2026
  • Allie dresses up as Jennifer Lopez—plunging green Versace dress and all.
    — Kenneal Patterson, Vanity Fair, 29 May 2026
Definition of dresses up
Verb
  • Agent Orange is a powerful chemical that kills weeds and acts as a defoliant, which the military used during the war in Vietnam to clear dense jungle and destroy food crops.
    — Armando Tinoco, Deadline, 10 Aug. 2026
  • In retaliation for Kanan murdering her father Marvin (London Brown), Jukebox (Hailey Kilgrove) kills Raq, the woman who raised her.
    — Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 8 Aug. 2026
Definition of kills
Verb
  • However, Sacramento does in fact have a restaurant that merges these cuisines in an elegant and very personal way.
    — Sean Timberlake, Sacbee.com, 24 July 2026
  • Not everyone went slowly insane under such circumstances, as Bartleby does in Melville’s story, but the experience was disorienting all the same.
    — Jake Lundberg, The Atlantic, 23 July 2026
Definition of does in
Verb
  • That’s because even ordinary winds – and far worse, storms and earthquakes – cause tall buildings to sway, which ruins people’s concentration, wrecks their mood, and even exhausts them.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 24 July 2026
  • Watching this scene, and much of the film, exhausts me.
    — Jenny Odell, Longreads, 2 June 2026
Definition of exhausts
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

does the trick
does up
doff
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Does up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/does%20up. Accessed 17 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Do you 'say your piece' or 'say your peace'?

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Words from the 'Odyssey'

The Longest Long Words List

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

Is “GIF” Pronounced “Jiff” or “Giff”?

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Words from the 'Odyssey'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
image of a green cube out of place in a lineup of red spheres
Odd Word Out: Synonyms Vol. 2 Quiz Figure out which word isn't like the others.
See All