Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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verb
To dress or ornament (someone or something), especially in a gaudy, showy, or tasteless manner.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: also, figuratively, literary, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: bedaub, embellish, gaud, overdecorate
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To make (someone or something) dirty; to bedaub, to besmear, to dirty.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Northern-England, literary, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: bedirty, befoul, sully, assoil, beclart, bedaub, imbrue (especially with blood), bedizen, befile, befilth, begrime, beray, beshit, besmear, besmirch, besully, bewray, blacken, blot, blur, clat, contaminate, darken, defile, dirten, dirty, elt, file, foil, foul, gunk, gunk up, inquinate, scunge, sling mud, slotter, slur, smear, smirch, smudge, smut, smutch, soil, soss, sowl, spot, stain, sullow, tarnish, uggle
Antonyms: none provided
verb
dress up garishly and tastelessly
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: dizen
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: overdress, dress up, fig out, fig up, deck up, gussy up, fancy up, trick up, deck out, trick out, prink, attire, get up, rig out, tog up, tog out
verb
decorate tastelessly
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: decorate, adorn, grace, ornament, embellish, beautify
History
PIE word *h1epi From be- (intensifying prefix) + dizen (“to attire, dress, especially showily”). Dizen is derived from dialectal dize (“to put (tow) on a distaff”), probably from Middle English *disen, from Old English *disan, *disian, from *dise, *disen (“bunch of flax on a distaff”), from Proto-Germanic *disanō (“distaff”); further etymology unknown.
Across languages
9 source translations are retained for this English entry.
