undress

Etymology

The verb is formed from English un- (“reversing an action”) + dress (“to clothe”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The noun, recorded from the 1680s, is taken by the OED and the Shorter Oxford as a separate formation from the negative prefix and the noun,^[2][5][6] as Klein also analyses it,^[8] while Etymonline treats it as a use of the verb.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To strip someone of their clothes: Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this sense to 1596,^[3] and Etymonline dates the verb, in the sense of taking off one's own clothes, to the 1590s.^[4] The Shorter Oxford dates a now obsolete sense, to undo or let down the hair, as early as the late 15th century,^[5] whereas the OED's first record of that sense is Florio's Italian dictionary of 1598.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The reflexive and intransitive uses, taking off one's own clothes, appear in Shakespeare and in Fletcher in the early 17th century, and the verb was soon used figuratively as well.^[2] From the 1640s it also meant to strip someone of something other than clothes; from 1651 it was used for taking the dressing off a wound.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave two senses: to strip of clothes, and to strip of ornaments or showy attire.^[9] The noun at first meant partial or informal dress, a loose garment not worn in public, which Johnson defined as a loose or careless dress;^[2][9] from 1748 it was also the ordinary uniform of soldiers and sailors, as opposed to full dress.^[2][4] Used attributively, as in undress uniform, it is recorded from 1777,^[2][4] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records a figurative adjective for something relaxed and unpretentious.^[3] In current use the noun often means nakedness, chiefly in the phrase in a state of undress.^[10][3]

Timeline

• 1596 – to strip (a person) of clothes.^[3] The OED's first quotation for this sense is from 1615.^[2]
• 1598 – to undo or let down the hair (obsolete by the mid 17th century).^[2][5]
• before 1616 – reflexive, to take off one's clothes, in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.^[2]
• before 1625 – intransitive, to take off one's clothes.^[2]
• 1642 – to strip of something, in Milton.^[2]
• 1651 – to remove the dressing from a wound.^[2]
• 1683 – noun, informal or incomplete dress.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the noun to 1677.^[3]
• 1748 – ordinary uniform, as distinct from full dress.^[2][4]
• 1777 – attributive, worn as informal dress or ordinary uniform.^[2][4]
• 1818 – to dress scantily or lightly.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To take the clothes off oneself or someone else: He undressed the baby and put her in the bath.^[10][3][2]
2. To take off one's clothes; to disrobe: They undressed quickly in the cold cabin.^[3][2]
3. To strip of ornaments or covering.^[10][9]
4. To remove the dressing from a wound.^[10][2]
5. To lay bare or expose, as something hidden or private.^[3][2]
6. (obsolete) To undo or let down the hair.^[3][2][5]

Noun

1. Partial or complete nakedness: guests in various states of undress.^[10][3][5]
2. Informal or everyday clothes, as opposed to formal full dress.^[10][3][2]
3. Ordinary military or naval uniform, as distinct from full dress.^[10][3][2]

Adjective

1. Of, for or requiring informal clothes or ordinary uniform.^[10][3][2]
2. Relaxed and informal; unpretentious.^[3]

Word family

• undressed

Related words

• dress

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins