ppl. a.
1. Clothed in good and becoming attire.
1576. R. Peterson, G. della Casa’s Galateo, 20. They be neuer redie: euer a trimming: neuer well dressed to their mindes.
1712–4. Pope, Rape of Lock, ii. 5. Fair Nymphs and well-drest Youths around her shone.
1791. Boswell, Johnson, 19 Sept. 1777. A well-drest elderly housekeeper … shewed us the house.
1849. G. P. R. James, Woodman, iv. This was no well-dressed and splendid assemblage.
1876. Emerson, Lett. & Soc. Aims, ii. Wks. (Bohn), III. 177. The lady who declared ‘that the sense of being perfectly well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity which religion is powerless to bestow.’
2. Properly prepared, cultivated, trimmed, cooked, etc.
1693. Congreve, Juv., Sat. xi. 136. Scarce a Slave, but has to Dinner now, The well-dress’d Paps of a fat pregnant Sow.
1768. Boswell, Corsica (ed. 2), 280. At dinner we had no less than twelve well-drest dishes.
1771. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 1), II. 211/2. The wool must be of a good quality, and well dressed.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 465. The sloping banks of the Tay are finely wooded, with well-dressed walks on the top. Ibid., 470. Surrounded with well dressed fields to the south.
