Dresser

How to spell dresser

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce dresser

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dresser mean?

1. nounA piece of furniture with drawers and often shelves or a mirror, used for storing dishes or clothing.
2. nounA person who dresses or arranges something, such as theatrical costumes or shop windows.

Dresser in a sentence

• She folded the laundry and stacked it neatly in the dresser.

• The actor relied on a skilled dresser to manage his quick costume changes.

• The old oak dresser in the kitchen displayed the family china.

• As a window dresser, she arranged the seasonal display in the store front.

Where does dresser come from?

Language of origin: French

The word traces back to the Old French verb dresser (also dechier), meaning 'to arrange, prepare, or set upright', which itself grew out of the Latin directiare, from directus 'straight' or 'set right'. English borrowed the verb 'dress' in the 1300s, originally with the broad sense of putting something in order, and only later did it narrow toward arranging clothing. The agent noun 'dresser', formed by adding -er, first named a person who prepares or arranges something, such as a kitchen worker who set out food or an assistant who helps an actor dress. From the idea of a surface where food was arranged came the furniture sense: a sideboard with shelves and drawers. The American sense, a bedroom chest of drawers with a mirror for getting dressed, ties the word back neatly to dressing oneself. The doubled -ss and the single -er ending are the usual spelling snag, since the schwa at the end gives no clue to its single r.

How the word is built

• dress (from Old French dresser: to arrange, set up)
• -er (noun suffix: person or thing that does)