dressing up

verb

present participle of dress up
1
as in dressing
to put on one's best or formal clothes we always like to dress up when going to parties

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance
2
as in disguising
to change the dress or looks of so as to conceal true identity the war was a fiasco that the administration tried to dress up as a triumph

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in sprucing
to make more desirable dressed up the house with new windows and a paint job before putting it on the market

Synonyms & Similar Words
4
as in clothing
to outfit with clothes and especially fine or special clothes the girls were dressed up in skirts or dresses, but the boys were wearing jeans

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

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.
Recent Examples of dressing up Today, dressing up as an athlete, the same as in any public-facing career, is an unavoidable profile-raising effort. — Leah Dolan, CNN Money, 15 July 2026 Summerween treats dressing up as a warm-weather activity, no trick-or-treating required. — Hanna Wickes, Miami Herald, 8 July 2026 Fair highlights Despite the ongoing issues, the sparse number of visitors entertained themselves with interactive exhibits, like dressing up as former President George Washington or speaking with an actress portraying Betsy Ross. — Michelle Del Rey, USA Today, 26 June 2026 Best Petite Work Pants on Amazon Not to be overly dramatic, but dressing up for the office is basically my nightmare. — Jamie Allison Sanders, PEOPLE, 18 June 2026 Rachel Smith, co-organizer of the convention and co-founder of Mermaid and Mom, a mermaid party entertainment business, told The Sacramento Bee in 2025 that the California Mermaid Convention brings together water enthusiasts who care for the environment and love dressing up. — Don Sweeney, Sacbee.com, 14 May 2026 Bad Bunny went full costume, carrying a cane and dressing up as an older version of himself with gray hair and special effects makeup to add years to his face. — Beatrice Dupuy, Chicago Tribune, 5 May 2026 Spiegelman uses the term micro-looting, dressing up petty theft in political pretensions. — Thomas Chatterton Williams, The Atlantic, 23 Apr. 2026 Three Los Angeles County residents will spend their weekends in jail for dressing up as a bear and trashing luxury cars for insurance money. — Matthew Rodriguez, CBS News, 16 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dressing up
  1. dressing
  2. disguising
  3. sweetening
  4. clothing
  5. masking
  6. improving
  7. doing up
  8. camouflaging
Verb
  • The partnership reflects how luxury’s relationship with sport has moved beyond dressing athletes.
    — Thomas Waller, Footwear News, 20 July 2026
  • In true method-dressing fashion, the Emmy winner added silver spider-web drop earrings and a red eyeshadow look as a nod to the titular superhero.
    — Catherine Santino, PEOPLE, 20 July 2026
Definition of dressing
Verb
  • That can remove visual boundaries, disguising any lines that would otherwise truncate your walls.
    — Andee Tagle, NPR, 19 July 2026
  • Any suggestion that the hot hit of spice barely disguising a watery want of flavor was all too fitting a symbol for this phase in Madonna’s career would have been met with indignation.
    — Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 13 July 2026
Definition of disguising
Verb
  • Without the match sweetening the deal, the argument for prioritizing retirement contributions over debt payoff weakens somewhat — though the tax deduction on traditional 401(k) contributions still has value.
    — Angelica Leicht, CBS News, 1 July 2026
  • Only sweetening the deal this year is the fact that her friend Anthony Vaccarello of Saint Laurent is co-chairing the hosting committee.
    — Irene Kim, Vogue, 4 May 2026
Definition of sweetening
Verb
  • Not feeding the hungry, not tending to the sick, not clothing the naked, not welcoming the refugee.
    — Alexandra Petri, The Atlantic, 17 June 2026
  • This is like inviting a homeless person into your home, sheltering them, feeding them, clothing them, educating them, and having that person's confidant leak that the newly comfortable person doesn't think less of you.
    — Armando Salguero OutKick, FOXNews.com, 22 May 2026
Definition of clothing
Verb
  • Smoke from wildfires in Canada has poured into the United States, causing air quality to plummet and masking landscapes in a thick, brown haze.
    — Dakota Smith, CNN Money, 17 July 2026
  • Here's what to know, from the air quality index to masking up.
    — Amethyst Martinez, USA Today, 16 July 2026
Definition of masking
Verb
  • Fedorov, previously Ukraine’s minister for digital transformation, had been in the job for just six months and was popular among troops for improving pay and frontline rotations.
    — Tim Lister, CNN Money, 16 July 2026
  • Intel's willingness to buy these expensive machines is a positive signal that its foundry (chip industry-speak for manufacturing) is expanding capacity and improving yields for leading-edge chips.
    — Jeff Marks, CNBC, 15 July 2026
Definition of improving
Verb
  • What in the world are those overgrown basketballs doing up there?
    — Rui Bo, The Conversation, 18 May 2026
  • Wednesday’s practice started with some of the players doing up-downs after forgetting equipment.
    — Anthony Solorzano, Los Angeles Times, 26 Mar. 2026
Definition of doing up
Verb
  • Over decades, the tides shift surrounding sand while marine life, like algae, grows over the device, camouflaging it into the natural ocean environment.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 3 July 2026
  • It can be used as a concealer, contour, or foundation, has medium coverage, is pore-blurring, texture-smoothing, and imperfection-camouflaging.
    — Tamim Alnuweiri, InStyle, 26 June 2026
Definition of camouflaging

Browse Nearby Words

dressings
dressing up
dress rehearsal
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Dressing up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dressing%20up. Accessed 21 Jul. 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!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of dog days

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'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?

Commonly Misspelled Words
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

The Longest Long Words List

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

Why do we say 'fly off the handle'?
See More

Popular

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat
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
thumbnail graphic with text word of the day quiz
Weekly "Word of the Day" Quiz See how well you know each Word of the Day for Ju...
See All