dresser

Noun

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.

Noun

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. (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.

4. (Britain) A football hooligan who wears designer clothing; a casual.
5. A mechanical device used in grain mills for bolting.
6. (dated) A table or bench on which meat and other things are dressed, or prepared for use.
7. (mining) A kind of pick for shaping large coal.
8. 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.

Conjugation

Related terms

• adresser

Conjugation

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.