window dresser
1
4.6
- noun
:
decorador de escaparates
- Gathering her hatbox, she fixed her gaze on the window dresser who was changing the shoes of a male mannequin in the showcase window of a shoe store.
Examples
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Gathering her hatbox, she fixed her gaze on the window dresser who was changing the shoes of a male mannequin in the showcase window of a shoe store.
Fiction book (1992) -
I'm a window-dresser here.
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What you need is a window dresser.
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Darling, I'm a window dresser.
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How would you like to be the chief window-dresser at Illustra?
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The window dresser mistook her gaze for interest in the shoes.
Fiction book (1992) -
She took Becky's hand as the window dresser removed the second foot and repeated the procedure.
Fiction book (1992) -
A window-dresser stares out from a tasteful array of ballet frocks.
Fiction book (1991) -
They get lost on their way to work; window dressers climb into buses and drive them into billboards, and piano tuners traipse into hospitals and put on scrubs.
Fiction book (2002) -
Harry came out from the main city shop where he was regarded as the best window dresser in Adelaide.
Synonyms
A person who plans and sets up displays in shop windows to attract customers
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is partly compositional: it denotes the agent who "dresses" a window (i.e., arranges or decorates a shop display), so there is a transparent relation between 'window' and an agentive role. However, 'dresser' is ambiguous for learners (often thought of as a well-dressed person or a piece of furniture) and the verb sense 'to dress' meaning 'to decorate/arrange' may not be known to a B1 learner, so the occupational sense is not fully predictable without exposure.
Etymology
Window dresser comes from the idea of 'dressing' a window like you dress a person. A dresser arranges clothes, props and lights in the window to make it look nice, so the term means 'a person who arranges and decorates shop window displays to attract customers'.