dinner dress
- noun
- /ˈdɪnər drɛs/
- Formal
:
vestido de gala
- After finding the perfect dinner dress, she felt ready to attend the fancy gala.
Examples
-
She wore a stunning dinner dress that shimmered under the event's lights.
-
Now, we'd like to look at a dinner dress--
-
This is our new dinner dress.
-
"My white dinner dress and the opals.
Fiction book (2000) -
Her makeup was professional, and she was dressed elegantly in a dinner dress over which was some sort of little jacket.
Fiction book (1990) -
The guests all arrived in elegant dinner dresses for the upscale evening event.
Synonyms
192
2.5
A long formal robe like those worn at graduations or in court
7
3.4
A formal dress worn by women for evening events
5
6.1
A close-fitting dress for women with a straight, narrow shape for formal events
1
4.2
Clothes worn for formal evening events like dinners or parties
1
4.1
A long elegant dress that women wear to formal dances
A formal dress worn to evening events, especially dinners
A formal dress a woman wears to a ball or gala
A formal dress made of silk for special occasions
Antonyms
How Formal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a formal gown for evening dinners or events' is directly and compositionally derived from 'dinner' (evening meal/event) + 'dress' (a garment). This noun–noun compound follows a common purpose/location pattern found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The noun dinner dress comes from a time when people wore different clothes for day and night. A dinner was the main 'evening' meal and a dress for that time was more fancy than day clothes, so the name came to mean a 'formal' gown for 'evening' events.