Word.ws English Dictionary

redress

Syllables: re·dress/ɹɪˈdɹɛs//ɹiˈdɹɛs/

redress verb: to put in order again; to set right; to revise.

redress: to put in order again; to set right; to revise
Image: Photograph by Mike Peel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb (1)

redress (third-person singular simple present redresses, present participle redressing, simple past and past participle redressed)

  1. To put in order again; to set right; to revise.
    • Let us divide our labours; thou, where choice / Leads thee, or where most needs, whether to wind / The woodbine round this arbour, or direct / The clasping ivy where to climb; while I, / In yonder spring of roses intermixed / With myrtle, find what to redress till noon: […]1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker under Creed Church neer Aldgate; And by Robert Boulter at the...
    • Sir; When last in Philadelphia, you mentioned to me your wish that I should re-dress a certain paper, which you had prepared. As it is important, that a thing of this kind should be done with great care, and much at leisure, touched and retouched, I submit a wish, that, as soon as you have given it...1796 May 10, Alexander Hamilton, letter to George Washington; quoted in George Washington; Jared Sparks, compiler, “Washington's Farewell Address [Appendix, No. III]”, in The Writings of George...
  2. To set right (a wrong); to repair, (an injury or damage); to make amends for; to remedy; to relieve from.
    • And for thoſe Wrongs, thoſe bitter Iniuries, […] / I doubt not, but with Honor to redreſſe.1591, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac...
    • The approach has been met with little acceptance and, in our view, for reasons we described elsewhere[…], cannot fundamentally redress the inequality described above.2022, Sabine Fiedler, Cyril Robert Brosch, “What is a lingua franca?” (chapter 2), in Esperanto – Lingua Franca and Language Community, John Benjamins Publishing Company, →DOI, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OL...
  3. To make amends or compensation to; to relieve of anything unjust or oppressive; to bestow relief upon.
    • Nor envy we / Thy great reknown, nor grudge thy victory; / 'Tis thine, O king! the afflicted to redress, / And fame has fill'd the world with thy success: […]1806, John Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite; or, The Knight's Tale. From [Geoffrey] Chaucer.”, in Thomas Park, editor, Fables from Bocaccio and Chaucer: … In Two Volumes. Collated with the Best Editions...
    • Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not / Who would be free themselves must strike the blow? / By their right arms the conquest must be wrought? / Will Gaul or Muscovite redress ye? no!1812, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, a Romaunt: And Other Poems, 4th edition, London: Printed by T[homas] Davison, Whitefriars, for John Murray, Fleet-Street; Edinburgh: William Blackwood...
  4. (obsolete, transitive) To put upright again; to restore.
    • Syr ſaid Dynadan I ſhalle gyue you my beholdynge / wel ſaid Palomydes / thenne ſhall ye ſee how we ſhalle redreſſe our myghtes1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum xviij”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book X, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC, leaf 222, recto; republished as H[einrich]...

Noun (1)

redress (countable and uncountable, plural redresses)

  1. The act of redressing; a making right; amendment; correction; reformation.
    • Iohn. [of Lancaster] […] Let's drinke together friendly, and embrace, / That all their eyes may beare thoſe Tokens home, / Of our reſtored Loue and Amitie. / Biſh. [Archbishop of York] I take your Princely word, for theſe redreſſes.c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, Containing His Death: And the Coronation of King Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...
  2. A setting right, as of injury, oppression, or wrong, such as the redress of grievances; hence, indemnification; relief; remedy; reparation.
    • Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.1791 December 15 (adoption), First Amendment of the United States Constitution
    • "Good heavens!" cried Elizabeth; "but how could that be?—How could his will be disregarded?—Why did you not seek legal redress?"1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XVI, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 181
  3. A possibility to set right, or a possibility to seek a remedy, for instance in court
  4. One who, or that which, gives relief; a redresser.

Verb (2)

redress (third-person singular simple present redresses, present participle redressing, simple past and past participle redressed)

  1. To dress again.
    • The top soil, which was removed before the main excavations, is being redressed on the new slopes to a depth of 4 in. and sown with grass seed.1958 January, “Rainham-Newington Widening, Southern Region”, in Railway Magazine, pages 51, 53
    • The teacher first undressed and redressed the doll for the child, then showed her how to pull the snaps apart. No other activity interested the little girl, and after repeated demonstrations she was still trying unsuccessfully to undress the doll.1963, Albert J[ay] Solnit, Sally A. Provence, editors, Modern Perspectives in Child Development: In Honor of Milton J. E. Senn, New York, N.Y.: International Universities Press, →OCLC, page 588
  2. To redecorate a previously existing film set so that it can double for another set.
    • Meanwhile the actors rearranged themselves into a different blocking, as the prop department redressed the set.1989, American Cinematographer, volume 70, Hollywood, Calif.: ASC Holding Corp., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 90
    • [Val] Lewton would redress standing sets, turning a church into an insane asylum or the staircase for Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons into the staircase for the young girl's apartment in Cat People. […] [Y]ou should be thinking about trying to reuse every location you have as another...2004, Michael P. DiPaolo, “How to be a Guerrilla Filmmaker”, in The Six Day Horror Movie: A No-Nonsense Guide to No-Budget Filmmaking, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 120

Noun (2)

redress (plural redresses)

  1. The redecoration of a previously existing film set so that it can double for another set.
    • The Honeydukes set in this film is a redress of the set of Flourish and Blotts that was seen in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which, in turn, was a redress of the Ollivander's set from the first film.c. 2008, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”, in Wikipedians, editors, Harry Potter: The Complete Guide, [Mainz, Germany]: PediaPress, page 595

redress meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

redress in Tamil

குறை தீர்வு, குறைதீர்வு, சீராக்கம், குறைநீக்கு, சீர்ப்படுத்து

redress in Urdu

چارہ, دہائی, فریاد رسی, چارہ گری کرنا, داد دینا, دہائی مانگنا

redress in Bengali

প্রতিকার করা, সংশোধন করা

redress in Malayalam

പരിഹരിക്കുക, രണ്ടാമതും ഉടുക്കുക, വീണ്ടും ധരിക്കുക, തുല്യമാക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
redress in Kannada
ಸರಿಪಡಿಸು, ಕಳೆತತುಂಬು, ತವಳಿಸು, ನಿವಾರಿಸು
redress in Persian
اصلاح eslâh

Examples of redress in a sentence

  • It will be pleaded, thirdly, that no substitute for war can be devised, which will insure to a nature a redress of wrongs.—But is it common for a nation to obtain a redress of wrongs by war?1816?, Noah Worcester, A Solemn Review of War (no. XXXVI), Boston, Mass.: American Peace Society, →OCLC, page 3:
  • Although the main sanction is a criminal prosecution, there is also the possibility of consumer redress, either through compensation orders or the new civil sanction pilots.2011, The Law Commission, The Scottish Law Commission, “The Structure of this Consultation Paper”, in Consumer Redress for Misleading and...
  • The offering of redress and reparations to Japanese Americans was a significant step in the proliferation of a redress and reparation norm.2013, Stephanie Wolfe, “Redress and Reparation Movements (RRMs) Following the United States Internments”, in The Politics of Reparations...
  • I talked with her mother whenever she was in the room while I redressed the wound.2009, John C. Barber, The Joy of Medical Practice: Forty Years of Interesting Patients, page 22:

All 15 example sentences with redress

Synonyms of redress

8 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of redress

Forms of redress

Verb
third-person singular presentredresses
present participleredressing
past participleredressed
pastredressed
alternative formre-dress
Noun
pluralredresses

Past tense of redress: redressed

Origin of redress

From Middle English redressen, from Anglo-Norman radresser, redrescer, redrescier and Middle French redresser (“to stand (someone or something) up; to stand up again; to rebuild, to repair something damaged, to rectify, to restore; to obtain redress; to cure; (of hair) to stand on end; to revise a judgment”) (modern French redresser), from Old French redrecier (“to stand (someone or something) up; to stand up again”), from Old French re- (“again, once more”) (from Latin re-, from Proto-Italic *wre- (“again”); further etymology uncertain) + Old French drechier, drecier, dresser (“to dress; to stand up”) (from Vulgar Latin *drēctiāre, a contracted form of *dīrēctiāre, from Latin dīrēctus (“straight”)). Compare Catalan redreçar, Spanish redreçar (obsolete), Italian redreçare, redrezare, redricciare, ridirizzare (all obsolete), ridrizzare, Late Latin redressare (“to repair; to set right”), Old Occitan redreisar, redresar.

From re- + dress.

Words formed from redress

Words that rhyme with redress

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about redress

What does redress mean?
Redress means to put in order again; to set right; to revise.
What is redress in Tamil?
Redress in Tamil is குறை தீர்வு, குறைதீர்வு, சீராக்கம். See Redress meaning in Tamil.
How do you use redress in a sentence?
It will be pleaded, thirdly, that no substitute for war can be devised, which will insure to a nature a redress of wrongs.—But is it common for a nation to obtain a redress of wrongs by war?
What part of speech is redress?
Redress can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce redress?
Redress is pronounced /ɹɪˈdɹɛs/ (UK).
What is the past tense of redress?
The past tense of redress is redressed.

Words near redress in the dictionary

  1. redreamt
  2. redredge
  3. redredged
  4. redredges
  5. redredging
  6. redress
  7. redressability
  8. redressable
  9. redressal
  10. redressals
  11. redresse

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: redress (page history and authors); redress (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); redress (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); redress (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); redress (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); redress (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-redress.ogg, en-au-redress.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-redress (re-).wav.

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