dressing-down
dressing-down noun: a reprimand or rarely, a thrashing.
Noun
dressing-down (plural dressing-downs or dressings-down)
- A reprimand or rarely, a thrashing.
- "I'll give him a dressing down, see if I don't." Mrs. Mudge's eyes snapped viciously, and she clutched the relics of the broom with a degree of energy which rendered it uncertain what sort of a dressing down she intended for her husband.1865, Horatio Alger, Jr., Paul Prescott's Charge
- When the blacksmith saw what Babo had done to his mother, he caught him by the collar, and fell to giving him such a dressing down as never man had before.1894, Howard Pyle, Twilight Land
- Synonyms:
- handbagging, stricture, hiding, going over, animadversion, criticism, criticization, critique, slam, ass beating
Synonyms of dressing-down
- handbagging
- stricture
- hiding
- going over
- animadversion
- criticism
- criticization
- critique
- slam
- ass beating
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of dressing-down
| plural | dressing-downs |
|---|---|
| plural | dressings-down |
| alternative form | dressing down |
Questions about dressing-down
- What does dressing-down mean?
- Dressing-down means a reprimand or rarely, a thrashing.
- What part of speech is dressing-down?
- Dressing-down is a noun.
- What is the plural of dressing-down?
- The plural of dressing-down is dressing-downs.
Words near dressing-down in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dressing-down (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-dressing-down.ogg.
Cite this entry: “dressing-down.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dressing-down. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.