power dressingn.
/ˈpaʊə ˌdrɛsɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈpaʊ(ə)r ˌdrɛsɪŋ/ Originally U.S.
A style of dress for work and business, typically formal, fashionable, and imposing in style, intended to convey an impression of efficiency, self-confidence, and assertiveness.The term is particularly associated with the business world of the 1980s. It predominantly refers to styles of women's clothing, esp. formal suits (in early use) characterized by the use of shoulder pads to create a more masculine-looking outline.
ΚΠ
1979 Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) 17 Sept. 19/5 The accent has shifted to glamour and power dressing for the city rather than the casual look of past seasons.
1980 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 16 Nov. iv. 20/3 Women who are into Power Dressing, that is, the right kind of well cut suit, silk shirt and discreet pump, all worn in the interests of androgyny on the job, may be happy about the entry of men's suit manufacturers into the women's suit business.
1992 M. Blonsky Amer. Mythologies (1993) i. 30 Another school—that of American power dressing, for instance. The brutal, sharp, stiletto look, say, of Michael Douglas in Wall Street.
2001 Vogue (U.S. ed.) Mar. 74/1 We were seeing..a radically new idea of power dressing.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
power dressingadj.
/ˈpaʊə ˌdrɛsɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈpaʊ(ə)r ˌdrɛsɪŋ/ Originally U.S.
Of, relating to, or designating a style of dress for work and business intended to convey an impression of efficiency, self-confidence, and assertiveness; characteristic of or characterized by this style. Cf. power dressing n.
ΚΠ
1988 Washington Monthly (Nexis) May 34 Women like her..in their executive suits with the little string ties or floppy jabots and padded power-dressing shoulders.
1994 Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 27 Mar. 153/3 Priscilla Presley is a joke as Mrs Drebin, a power-dressing corporate lawyer.
2001 Daily Tel. 10 Dec. 30/1 A youthful 54-year-old mother of two, she is a power-dressing, career-minded businesswoman.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1979adj.1988- formicary
- formicas
- formicate
- formicating
- formication
- formications
- formicative
- four
- four alls
- four and seven
- four bits
- four bob robbo
- four corners
- four field kono
- four figured
- four figures
- four flush
- four for four
- four freedoms
- four hours penny
- four hundred
- four o'clock
- four o'clock flower
- four oclock
- four of a kind