[UN-1 12.]
1. Partial or incomplete dress; dress of a kind not ordinarily worn in public; dishabille. Also (esp. of men), informal or ordinary dress, as distinct from that worn on ceremonial or special occasions.
a. Of women.
The common use during the 18th century.
1685. Crowne, Sir C. Nice, IV. To-day the beauty lyes ambush’d in undresses, the hair pin’d up in papers.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Pleasant Lett. to Gent., Wks. 1709, III. II. 15. How he surpriz’d a famous Miss of the Town, dining at her Lodgings in an Undress.
1767. Lond. Gaz., No. 10716. 2/1. The Ladies to wear black Silk or Velvet…. Undress, white or grey Lustrings [etc.].
1785. Sarah Fielding, Ophelia, I. viii. The night-gowns and common undresses were grown familiar to me.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxii. Where she sat … adorned with all that Janet’s art, and a rich and tasteful undress, could bestow.
a. 1847. [see DISHABILLE 2].
b. Of men.
1683. Dryden, Life Plutarch, 94. Here you are led into the private lodgings of the hero; you see him in his undress.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 4 Feb. 1685. He had ben on the bed, but was now risen and in his undresse.
1767. Lond. Gaz., No. 10716. 2/1. The Men to continue in Black full trimmed;… Undress, light grey Frocks.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxxii. Varney … had changed his splendid attire, and now waited on his patron in a very modest and plain undress.
1853. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, viii. There are few more difficult persons to identify than a huntsman in undress.
c. Mil. and Naval: Dress or uniform authorized to be worn on ordinary occasions, as distinguished from full or service dress.
1748. Smollett, R. Random, xx. To get into [Captain] O’Donnell’s apartment, while he was abroad in an undress, and examine his sword.
1783. Ann. Reg., Chron., 193/2. Undress. Admiral’s. A blue cloth frock, with blue cuff and blue lappels.
1829. S. Haigh, Sk. Buenos Ayres & Chile, 123. The soldiers wore what I supposed was their undress; it consisted of a military cap, a poncho, and sandals of hide.
1849. Lever, Con Cregan, v. A young officer, in a cavalry undress.
1857. Dress Regul. Army, 28. Scarlet Undress…. Blue Undress.
1879. Unif. Reg., in Nary List, July (1882), 487/2. Trowsers, without lace.—As in undress.
2. transf. and fig.
(a) 1684. T. Burnet, Theory Earth, I. 141. ’Tis very useful … to look often upon such bare draughts as shew us nature in an undress.
1692. Dryden, Cleomenes, IV. i. This famine has a sharp and meagre face: ’Tis death in an undress of skin and bone.
c. 1705. Pope, Imit. Eng. Poets, Cowley’s Garden, 6. Where Lilies smile in virgin robes of white, The thin Undress of superficial Light.
1853. Is. Williams, Baptistery, I. xi. (1874), 138. Such Basil’s Pontic home,… beautiful in nature’s stern undress.
(b) 1797. Monthly Mag., III. 493/1. When we are able to attend the author in the sequestered scenes of life, and contemplate the undress of his mind.
1825. Examiner, 738/2. We now and then detected a little colloquial undress in the female dialogue.
1886. Pater, Appreciations (1890), 127. When he writes (still in undress) he does but take the ‘friendly reader’ into his confidence.
3. attrib. Constituting an undress; worn when in undress; spec. in Mil. and Naval use (see 1 c).
1829. Marryat, F. Mildmay, vii. The officers in their undress uniform.
1844. Regul. & Ord. Army, 132. When Officers attend in Uniform as spectators at the Review,… they are not to appear in Blue Frock-Coats or Undress Jackets.
1894. Mrs. Dyan, Man’s Keeping (1899), 238. The Collector of Poggulpore’s portly form, in very much undress garb.
fig. 1806. W. Taylor, in Robberds, Mem. (1843), II. 135. The simple, idiomatic, undress, conversational tone of Lessing’s blank verse.
