overdress
overdress verb: to wear too many clothes for a particular occasion.
Verb
overdress (third-person singular simple present overdresses, present participle overdressing, simple past and past participle overdressed)
- To wear too many clothes for a particular occasion.
- To wear clothing which is too elaborate or formal for a particular occasion.
- We meet again, Fraulein. You Americans, you're all the same. Always overdressing for the wrong occasions.1981, Lawrence Kasdan, Raiders of the Lost Ark, spoken by Toht
- To put too many clothes on (a person).
- parents who overdress their children in winter
- To put too much dressing on (food).
- Don't overdress the salad: it shouldn't be swimming in oil.
Noun
overdress
- Any dress (feminine-style garment) worn over another, especially over an underdress.
- Any garment worn over another.
- Antonyms:
- underdress
Antonyms of overdress
Forms of overdress
| third-person singular present | overdresses |
|---|---|
| present participle | overdressing |
| past participle | overdressed |
| past | overdressed |
Origin of overdress
From over- + dress.
Words formed from overdress
Questions about overdress
- What does overdress mean?
- Overdress means to wear too many clothes for a particular occasion.
- What part of speech is overdress?
- Overdress can be a verb or a noun.
- What is the past tense of overdress?
- The past tense of overdress is overdressed.
Words near overdress in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: overdress (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-overdress.wav.
Cite this entry: “overdress.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overdress. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.