dress, dresse, dressen, drysse

t. & i. [0. Fr. dre er, drescer, drechier; Fr. dre er, from Low Lat. drictio, from Lat. directio, from drictus, a contr. form of direct us =straight, direct, from dirigo to direct, to set straight; Ital. drizzare, dirizzare; O. Sp. derezar.] [ADDRESS, U., DIRECT.] A. Transitive: I. Ordinary Language: *1. Literally: (1) To make straight. "Schrewide thing is schulen be into dre id thing is."Wycliffe: Luke iii. 5. (2) To set in a straight or direct line; to direct. 'Toward the derrest on the dece he dre ez the face." Cawaine , 445. (3) To reach, to hand over. "He took bred Luke xxiv. 30. 2. Figuratively: IMG:content-0519.png:[blocks in formation] (1) To direct, to order; to set and keep straight. "He schal dre e thi we ye." - Wycliffe: Gen. xxiv. 40. (2) To put or keep in order; to adjust, to put to rights. "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dre it and to keep it." Gen. ii. 15. *3. To regulate, to direct, to rule. "Danmarke he dry ede alle by drede of hym selvyne." Morte Arthure, 46. (4) To trim, to fit or prepare for use. "When he dre eth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it."-Exod. xxx. 7. (5) To prepare meat for the table; to cook. "Go now to thy brother Amnon's house, and dre him meat."-2 Sam . xiii. 7. (6) To clothe, to invest with clothes, to attire, to apparel, to array. (7) To invest, array, or accouter. "When Florent was all redy drest In hys armure." Octavian, 1,035. (8) To attire, array, or deck out pompously, (With up.) "They paint and smile, and dre themselves up in tinsel, and gla gems, and counterfeit imagery."- Taylor . (9) To invest with an outward appearance or character. "He dre es the incidents in a rationalized form, and changes their chronology." Lewis: Cred. Early Rom. Hist . (1855), ch. xii., pt. ii., § 23. (10) Το cover, to deck out. "In wavy gold thy summer vales are dre ed." Pope: Homer's Ody ey, xix. 131. (11) To adorn, to beautify. "Fragrant turf, and flowers as wild and fair As ever dre ed a bank, or scented summer air." Cowper: Charity , 258, 259. (12) To curry or rub down a horse. "Our infirmities are so many, that we are forced to dre and tend horses and a es, and they may help our needs."-Taylor. (13) To treat a wound with medicinal preparations; to apply remedies to a wound. "In time of my sickne another chirurgeon dre ed her."- Wiseman. (14) To prepare for use in any way: as, to dre hemp, to dre leather, . "And I will dre the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under."-1 Kings xviii. 23. *(15) To attend to, to clean. "And Mephibosheth, the son of Saul, came down to meet the king, and had neither dre ed his feet, nor trimmed his beard."-2 Sam . xix. 24. (16) To prune, to cut. "When you dre your young hops, cut away roots or sprigs."-Mortimer: Husbandry. II. Technically : 1. Fabric: (1) To size yarn, cloth, or thread. (2) To teazle or raise the nap on woolen cloth. 2. Print.: To arrange the form in the chase symmetrically. 3. Mill - work : To prepare the surface of a millstone. 4. Masonry: To prepare or smooth the surface of stonework. 5. Min .: To prepare mineral ores for the furnace. 6. Metall .: To planish sheet-metal ware into symmetrical form on a stake or anvil. 7. Mil .: To arrange or form the ranks in a straight line. 8. Naut.: To ornament or deck out a ve el with flags, ensigns, pendants, ., in honor of some special event. IMG:content-0520.png:[blocks in formation] To dre up or out : (1) Lit .: To clothe or deck out pompously, finely, or elaborately. (2) Fig .: To invest with a fictitious character or appearance. IMG:content-0521.png:[blocks in formation] Dre er of plays : A term applied in the early part of the seventeenth century to literary hacks who gained a scanty subsistence by altering and amending old dramas to suit the taste of the times. The character of Demetrius in the Poetaster was undoubtedly intended by Jonson to represent Dekker, who, in revenge, wrote his Satiro - mastix . "O sir, his doublet's a little decayed; he is otherwise & ery simple, honest fellow, sir, one Demetrius, a dre er of plays about the town here." -Ben Jonson: Poetaster, iii. 1.