dress down
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From analogy with dress up.
Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Verb
[edit]dress down (third-person singular simple present dresses down, present participle dressing down, simple past and past participle dressed down)
- (transitive, idiomatic) To scold.
- 2022 October 10, Jonathan Mahon-Heap, quoting Hugo, 29, former analyst, “‘One guy brandished a whip’ – bankers on Industry’s rampant sex, drugs and bullying culture”, in The Guardian[1]:
- One night – it was 2.30am – he dressed down a graduate, screaming in her face: “Are you stupid? Are you a fucking stupid cunt?” I had never seen anything like it in a workplace, or on TV, and I haven’t since.
- (intransitive) To wear casual or informal clothes.
- (nautical) To prepare (caught fish) by gutting them, removing the heads and backbones, etc.
- 1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous:
- Dan could bait up trawl or lay his hand on any rope in the dark; and at a pinch, when Uncle Salters had a gurry-sore on his palm, could dress down by sense of touch.
Translations
[edit]to scold
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