| 释义 |
ˌoverˈdress, v.
[over- 27.]
1. trans. To dress to excess; to dress with too much display and ornament. Also intr. for refl.
1706Walsh in Pope's Lett. (1735) I. 58, I have seen many Women over-dress'd, and several look better in a careless Night-gown, with their hair about their ears. 1731Pope Ep. Burlington 52 Treat the Goddess like a modest fair, Nor over-dress, nor leave her wholly bare. 1880Daily Tel. 4 Nov., Servants waste their wages.., they overdress and squander. 1883American VII. 169 They don't overdress themselves.
2. To embellish too elaborately.
1866Sat. Rev. 7 Apr. 421/1 Theocritus..never overdoes his subject or overdresses his language. 1947Sat. Rev. Lit. (U.S.) 1 Mar. 23/2 There are times, too, when Mr. Miller overdresses the phrasing of his dialogue.
3. To dress or cook (food) too much.
1775Adair Amer. Ind. 412 In order to destroy the blood,..they over-dress every kind of animal food they use. 1802Beddoes Hygëia iv. 31 To overdress the meat till it is unfit to be eaten.
Hence ˌoverˈdressed ppl. a.; ˌoverˈdressiness; ˌover-ˈdressing vbl. n.
1820M. Edgeworth Let. 10 Aug. in C. Colvin M. Edgeworth in France & Switz. (1979) 209 Enter 3 English ladies overdressed in silks blonde and flowers! 1836Dickens Sunday under Three Heads i. 2 There is a great deal of very unnecessary cant about the over-dressing of the common people. 1874J. Brown Let. 4 Sept. (1907) 240 We saw the Duke with his eagle's feather, the Duchess in purple and lace, petite and overdressed. 1891O. Wilde Pict. Dorian Gray i. 9 After I had been in the room about ten minutes, talking to huge overdressed dowagers and tedious Academicians, I suddenly became conscious that some one was looking at me. 1927Daily Express 26 Aug. 1 What would look indecent in a London hotel becomes overdressiness here. 1932W. W. Jacobs Night-Watchman iv. 680 Nothing looks worse than an over-dressed woman. 1939Joyce Finnegans Wake 441 What's overdressed if underclothed? 1962J. D. MacDonald Girl ix. 113, I got maybe forty [girls] stripped entire... Compared to them sixty broads, I was over⁓dressed. 1975J. F. Burke Death Trick (1976) ix. 132 An overdressed old mama. |