Word.ws English Dictionary

dress-code

dress-code verb: to invoke or impose a dress code upon (someone); to take disciplinary action on (someone) for violating a dress code.

Verb

dress-code (third-person singular simple present dress-codes, present participle dress-coding, simple past and past participle dress-coded)

  1. (transitive) To invoke or impose a dress code upon (someone); to take disciplinary action on (someone) for violating a dress code.
    • Dress-coding, on the other hand, is to point out that, whereas that garment may be fine at another place and time, it isn't right for school.2018 June 24, HowExpert, Melanie Miller, Parenting 101: A Mother and Teacher of 30 Years Shares Her Best Parenting Lessons to Raise Happy, Healthy, Responsible, and Successful Children From A to Z...
    • “You're dress-coding me?” Tasha said. “This isn't even your class!” Just then the actual English teacher came in.2019 September 17, Beth Vrabel, The Humiliations of Pipi McGee, Running Press Kids, →ISBN

Examples of dress-code in a sentence

  • “They dress-coded her.” I blinked quickly, not understanding.2020 October 20, Kim Harrington, Revenge of the Red Club, Aladdin, →ISBN, page 125:
  • “You didn't even get dress-coded that first day.2020 October 20, Kim Harrington, Revenge of the Red Club, Aladdin, →ISBN, page 216:

Forms of dress-code

third-person singular presentdress-codes
present participledress-coding
past participledress-coded
pastdress-coded
alternative formdresscode

Questions about dress-code

What does dress-code mean?
Dress-code means to invoke or impose a dress code upon (someone); to take disciplinary action on (someone) for violating a dress code.
How do you use dress-code in a sentence?
“They dress-coded her.” I blinked quickly, not understanding.
What part of speech is dress-code?
Dress-code is a verb.
What is the past tense of dress-code?
The past tense of dress-code is dress-coded.

Words near dress-code in the dictionary

  1. dress the house
  2. dress the part
  3. dress to kill
  4. dress up
  5. dress'd
  6. dress-code
  7. dress-coded
  8. dress-codes
  9. dress-coding
  10. dress-down day
  11. dress-down days

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dress-code (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:

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