cross-dressing

cross-dressing noun: the wearing of clothing which society considers appropriate for the opposite sex rather than the wearer's sex. Also the present participle and gerund of cross-dress.

Noun

cross-dressing (uncountable)

The wearing of clothing which society considers appropriate for the opposite sex rather than the wearer's sex.
Display by antigen-presenting cells of antigens obtained from the surface of infected cells.
- Now, a study published in Nature shows that cross-dressing does indeed occur and is important for boosting memory CD8+ T cell responses in vivo.2011 April 21, Olive Leavy, “Cross-dress to impress”, in Nature Reviews Immunology, volume 11, number 302, →DOI

Also used as

cross-dressing is also the present participle and gerund of cross-dress.

cross-dressing meaning in Indonesian

cross-dressing in Indonesian

wearing clothes of the opposite gender: berlintas-busana

Synonyms of cross-dressing

Forms of cross-dressing

alternative form	crossdressing
alternative form (informal)	x-dressing

Origin of cross-dressing

From cross- + dressing, a calque of German Transvestismus.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Words formed from cross-dressing

crossplay

Questions about cross-dressing

What does cross-dressing mean?: Cross-dressing means the wearing of clothing which society considers appropriate for the opposite sex rather than the wearer's sex.
What is cross-dressing in Indonesian?: Cross-dressing in Indonesian is berlintas-busana. See Cross-dressing meaning in Indonesian.
What part of speech is cross-dressing?: Cross-dressing is a noun.

Words near cross-dressing in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: cross-dressing (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “cross-dressing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cross-dressing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.