Tress
name, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A braid, knot, or curl, of hair; a ringlet.
"nor was the doom / of guilty deed, but of a hapless wight / to sudden madness stung, ere ripe to die, / therefore the Queen of Hades had not shorn / the fair tress from her forehead, nor assigned / that soul to Stygian dark."
- 2 a hairdo formed by braiding or twisting the hair wordnet
- 3 A long lock of hair.
- 4 A knot or festoon, as of flowers. broadly
- 1 To braid or knot hair.
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"nor was the doom / of guilty deed, but of a hapless wight / to sudden madness stung, ere ripe to die, / therefore the Queen of Hades had not shorn / the fair tress from her forehead, nor assigned / that soul to Stygian dark."
Etymology
From Middle English tresse, from Old French tresce, of uncertain origin; possibly from Vulgar Latin *trichia, from Ancient Greek τριχία (trikhía, “rope”), from θρίξ (thríx, “hair”). Compare French tresse, Italian treccia.
Two main origins: * An English surname of unexplained origin. * A surname borrowed from German Tress.
Related phrases
More for "tress"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.