dresser

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹɛsə/
• Rhymes: -ɛsə(ɹ)

From Middle English dressure, dressor, dressour, a borrowing from Old French drecëur, drecëure, from the verb dresser.

dresser (plural dressers)

1. An item of kitchen furniture, like a cabinet with shelves, for storing crockery or utensils.
   • 1847, Longfellow, Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

     The pewter plates on the dresser / Caught and reflected the flame, as shields of armies the sunshine.

   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 2

     But it went through her like a flash of hot fire when, in passing, he lurched against the dresser, setting the tins rattling, and clutched at the white pot knobs for support.

2. An item of bedroom furniture, like a low chest of drawers, often with a mirror.

From Middle English dresser, dressour, equivalent to dress +‎ -er.

dresser (plural dressers)

1. One who dresses in a particular way.

   He's a very snappy dresser.

2. A wardrobe assistant in a theatre (who helps actors put on their costume).
3. A servant to royalty etc. who helps them with tasks such as dressing.
   • 2013, Craig Brown, Hello Goodbye Hello: A Circle of 101 Remarkable Meetings (page 107)

     The former royal butler Guy Hunting recalls the uphill task faced by the Princess's dresser, Isobel Mathieson, each morning. 'During her many years with Princess Margaret, the biggest challenge Isobel faced each day was separating the royal body from its bed.

4. (medicine) A surgeon's assistant who helps to dress wounds etc.
   • 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, I:

     On the very day that I had come to this conclusion, I was standing at the Criterion Bar, when someone tapped me on the shoulder, and turning round I recognized young Stamford, who had been a dresser under me at Bart's.

5. (Britain) A football hooligan who wears designer clothing; a casual.
6. A mechanical device used in grain mills for bolting.
7. (dated) A table or bench on which meat and other things are dressed, or prepared for use.
8. (mining) A kind of pick for shaping large coal.
9. One who dresses or prepares stone.
   • 2015, Frank Bennett, ‎Alfred Pinion, Roof Slating and Tiling (page 7)

     At the dressing sheds the slate-dresser saws the blocks into various sizes and then splits the smaller units into sheets.

• redress

From Old French drecer, drecier, from Vulgar Latin *dīrectio (through a contracted form *drectio), from Latin dīrectus (“straight”), whence the adjective direct. Compare Italian drizzare, Spanish aderezar, Norman dréchi, Friulian dreçâ.

• IPA^(key): /dʁe.se/, /dʁɛ.se/

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dresser

1. (transitive) to erect, put up
2. (transitive) to pitch (a tent)
3. (transitive) to lift, raise
4. (transitive) to set, lay out

   Est-ce qu'il a dressé la table? Has he laid the table?

5. (transitive) to tame (lion etc), break in (horse), to train (an animal)
6. (reflexive) to stand

• adresser

• “dresser” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

dresser m

1. indefinite plural of dress

dresser

1. present of dresse

dresser

1. Alternative form of drecier

This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. The forms that would normally end in *-ss, *-sss, *-sst are modified to s, s, st. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.