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Dress down

verb

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To scold. idiomatic, transitive

    "One night – it was 2.30am – he dressed down a graduate, screaming in her face: “Are you stupid? Are you a fucking stupid cunt?” I had never seen anything like it in a workplace, or on TV, and I haven’t since."

  2. 2
    dress informally and casually wordnet
  3. 3
    To wear casual or informal clothes. intransitive
  4. 4
    censure severely or angrily wordnet
  5. 5
    To prepare (caught fish) by gutting them, removing the heads and backbones, etc.

    "Dan could bait up trawl or lay his hand on any rope in the dark; and at a pinch, when Uncle Salters had a gurry-sore on his palm, could dress down by sense of touch."

Etymology

From analogy with dress up.

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