dressing

The word “dressing” means a sauce added to a salad or dish, often oil-based. In plain terms, a sauce for food, a bandage for a wound, or the act/style of putting on clothes — the exact meaning depends on context.

“Dressing” is pronounced DREH-sihng (/ˈdɹɛsɪŋ/ in IPA).

Here is “dressing” used in a sentence: “She tossed the leaves in a simple lemon dressing.”

“Dressing” is a noun.

“Dressing” is a fairly common word in modern English.

“Dressing” has 3 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a sauce added to a salad or dish, often oil-based.

A dressing is a specific kind of sauce used to coat a salad or dish, and it is often oil-based, such as a vinaigrette. All dressings are sauces in a broad sense, but the word "dressing" signals it is meant to be tossed with cold ingredients like salad greens.

In wound care, a dressing is the protective covering placed directly on the wound to keep it clean and absorb fluid, while a bandage is the strip that holds a dressing in place. The words overlap in everyday speech, but strictly the dressing touches the wound and the bandage secures it.

In cooking, "dressing" pairs with words like salad, French, and Italian, as in "salad dressing." In medicine, it appears in phrases such as "apply a dressing," "sterile dressing," and "change the dressing."