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What is the difference between dress and skirt?

dress | skirt |

As nouns the difference between dress and skirt

is that dress is an item of clothing (usually worn by a woman or young girl) which both covers the upper part of the body and includes skirts below the waist while skirt is an article of clothing, usually worn by women and girls, that hangs from the waist and covers the lower part of the body.

As verbs the difference between dress and skirt

is that dress is to prepare oneself; to make ready while skirt is to be on or form the border of.

dress

English

Noun

  • (countable) An item of clothing (usually worn by a woman or young girl) which both covers the upper part of the body and includes skirts below the waist.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
  • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=2 citation , passage=Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety.  She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.}}
  • (uncountable) Apparel, clothing.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=6 citation , passage=Even in an era when individuality in dress is a cult, his clothes were noticeable. He was wearing a hard hat of the low round kind favoured by hunting men, and with it a black duffle-coat lined with white.}}
  • The system of furrows on the face of a millstone.
  • A dress rehearsal.
  • Derived terms

    * dress code * dress rehearsal * dress shirt * nightdress * wedding dress

    Verb

  • (obsolete, reflexive, intransitive) To prepare oneself; to make ready.
  • *:
  • *:but syr Gawayns spere brak / but sir marhaus spere helde / And therwith syre Gawayne and his hors russhed doune to the erthe / And lyghtly syre Gawayne rose on his feet / and pulled out his swerd / and dressyd hym toward syr Marhaus on foote
  • To adorn, ornament.
  • :
  • *Tennyson
  • *:dressing their hair with the white sea flower
  • *Carlyle
  • *:If he felt obliged to expostulate, he might have dressed his censures in a kinder form.
  • (nautical) To ornament (a ship) by hoisting the national colours at the peak and mastheads, and setting the jack forward; when "dressed full", the signal flags and pennants are added.
  • *1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , III.5:
  • *:Daily she dressed him, and did the best / His grievous hurt to guarish, that she might.
  • *1883 , (Robert Louis Stevenson), (Treasure Island) :
  • *:he was deadly pale, and the blood-stained bandage round his head told that he had recently been wounded, and still more recently dressed.
  • To prepare (food) for cooking, especially by seasoning it.
  • To fit out with the necessary clothing; to clothe, put clothes on (something or someone).
  • :
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=6 citation , passage=‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”.
  • To clothe oneself; to put on clothes.
  • :
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2 , passage=Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.}}
  • Of a man, to allow the genitals to fall to one side or other of the trousers.
  • :
  • To prepare for use; to fit for any use; to render suitable for an intended purpose; to get ready.
  • :to dress''' leather or cloth;  to '''dress''' a garden;  to '''dress''' grain, by cleansing it;  in mining and metallurgy, to '''dress ores, by sorting and separating them
  • * Bible, Exodus xxx. 7
  • When he dresseth the lamps he shall burn incense.
  • *Dryden
  • *:three hundred horsessmoothly dressed
  • To prepare the surface of (a material; usually stone or lumber).
  • (military, ambitransitive) To arrange in exact continuity of line, as soldiers; commonly to adjust to a straight line and at proper distance; to align. Sometimes an imperative command.
  • :to dress the ranks
  • :Right, dress !
  • To break and train for use, as a horse or other animal.
  • Synonyms

    * clothe * (clothe oneself) get dressed * (prepare the surface of) * bandage, put a bandage on, put a dressing on

    Antonyms

    * strip, undress * (clothe oneself) disrobe, get undressed, strip, undress

    Derived terms

    * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l)

    Statistics

    *

    Noun

    (nb-noun-m1) (clothing) a suit (either formal wear, or leisure or sports wear )

    References

    * ----

    skirt

    English

    (wikipedia skirt)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An article of clothing, usually worn by women and girls, that hangs from the waist and covers the lower part of the body.
  • * , The Purple Dress :
  • "I like purple best," said Maida. "And old Schlegel has promised to make it for $8. It's going to be lovely. I'm going to have a plaited skirt and a blouse coat trimmed with a band of galloon under a white cloth collar with two rows of—"
  • The part of a dress or robe that hangs below the waist.
  • * 1885 , , The Science of Dress in Theory and Practice , Chapter XI:
  • The petticoats and skirts ordinarily worn are decidedly the heaviest part of the dress ; hence it is necessary that some reform should be effected in these.
  • A loose edging to any part of a dress.
  • * Addison
  • A narrow lace, or a small skirt of ruffled linen, which runs along the upper part of the stays before, and crosses the breast, being a part of the tucker, is called the modesty piece.
  • A petticoat.
  • (pejorative, slang) A woman.
  • * 1931 , , Alleys of Peril :
  • "Mate," said the Cockney, after we'd finished about half the bottle, "it comes to me that we're a couple o' blightin' idjits to be workin' for a skirt ."
    "What d'ya mean?" I asked, taking a pull at the bottle.
    "Well, 'ere's us, two red-blooded 'e-men, takin' orders from a lousy little frail, 'andin' the swag h'over to 'er, and takin' wot she warnts to 'and us, w'en we could 'ave the 'ole lot. Take this job 'ere now--"
  • (UK, colloquial) Women collectively, in a sexual context.
  • (UK, colloquial) Sexual intercourse with a woman.
  • Border; edge; margin; extreme part of anything.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Here in the skirts of the forest.
  • The diaphragm, or midriff, in animals.
  • (Dunglison)

    Usage notes

    * (article of clothing) It was formerly common to speak of “skirts” (plural) rather than “a skirt”. In some cases this served to emphasize an array of skirts of underskirts, or of pleats and folds in a single skirt; in other cases it made little or no difference in meaning.

    Derived terms

    * fender skirt * hobble skirt * mermaid skirt * miniskirt * pencil skirt * prairie skirt * rah-rah skirt * skirt chaser * skirted * skirtless * unskirted

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To be on or form the border of.
  • The plain was skirted by rows of trees.
  • To move around or along the border of; to avoid the center of.
  • * 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Chapter 1
  • An enormous man and woman (it was early-closing day) were stretched motionless, with their heads on pocket-handkerchiefs, side by side, within a few feet of the sea, while two or three gulls gracefully skirted the incoming waves, and settled near their boots.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
  • , page=13 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist) , title= Ideas coming down the track , passage=A “moving platform” scheme
  • To cover with a skirt; to surround.
  • * Milton
  • skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold