[UN-2 4.]
1. refl. To divest oneself) of clothing.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., Induct. ii. 119. Madam vndresse you, and come now to bed.
1674. J. B[rian], Harv. Home, iv. 29. T’ undress themselves they all see cause, And call’d to come they seldome use to pause.
1712. Spect., No. 506, ¶ 5. A French Woman offering to undress and dress herself before the Lover.
1788. Gibbon, Decl. & F., l. V. 184. Undress thyself, thy aunt … is without a garment.
1853. Arab. Nts. (Rtldg.), 149. She then undressed herself and went to bed.
b. intr. To take off one’s clothes.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Noble Gent., II. ad fin. What are you mad, to make me Dress, and undress,… Because you find me plyant?
a. 1721. Prior, Truth & Falsehood, 25. Falsehood more leisurely undrest, And laying by Her tawdry vest, Trick’d her self out in Truth’s array.
c. 1755. in B. Ward, Hist. St. Edmund’s Coll. (1893), 302. It is always one of the Masters Business to be present while they are undressing.
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 121. In cold weather, the bather undresses in the former.
1885. Law Rep., 10 P. D. 93. She lay down on the bed in her clothes, and for three hours refused to undress.
† c. refl. and intr. To change one’s dress. Obs.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), IV. 83. If such a fine gentleman could condescend to undress himself, you might come … as a person who wanted hire.
1769. Lady Mary Coke, Jrnl., 15 June. Being engaged to dine at the Imperial Ambassador’s at Kensington I undressed and set out at four o’clock.
2. trans. To divest or strip (a person) of clothes.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 67. Women stand prepared to vndresse her.
1732. Lediard, Sethos, II. IX. 282. He caus’d him to be undress’d in his presence.
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, V. 453. She resisted being undressed, and was seized with an aguish shivering fit.
1838. [Mrs. Maitland], Lett. fr. Madras (1843), 206. The ayah undressed me as quickly as she could.
1885. R. Buchanan, Annan Water, ii. We must undress the child at once and put him to bed.
b. In fig. uses.
1633. P. Fletcher, Poet. Misc., Ps. lxiii., ii. Till I slumber, and death shall undresse me, Thus will I sing.
1668. Bp. Hopkins, Serm., Vanity (1685), 143. It is childish to quarrel at that hand which undresses us … only to lay us to sleep.
a. 1734. North, Examen, Pref. (1740), p. i. The present Writer hath chosen … to undress a filthy Libel not long since published.
1883. G. Moore, Modern Lover (1887), 75. He was conscious that Lord Seaton was undressing him with a look, and already knew that his clothes had come from Halet’s.
c. To strip of something.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., II. Wks. 1851, III. 177. The protestant religion … must undresse them of all their guilded vanities.
a. 1699. J. Beaumont, Psyche, XVI. xvii. Disrobe me of my Beauty, and unty My closest veins; undress me of my skin.
d. To dress scantily or lightly.
1818. La Belle Assemblée, XVII. 75/1. She shrunk from the gaze on that display which mamma had undressed her in.
† 3. To undo or disarrange (the hair). Obs.
1598. Florio, Scapigliare,… to vndresse or vntie ones head or haires.
1601. Weever, Mirr. Mart., B ij b. The baulme-sweet breathing of the aire … diuides each haire, each plight vndresses.
1652. Crashaw, Carmen Deo Nostro, Epiphanie (Close). Thus he undresses His sacred unshorn tres[s]es.
4. To remove the dressing from (a wound).
1651. Davenant, Gondibert, I. VI. xxxiv. His hands the duke’s worst-order’d wounds undress And gently binde.
Hence Undresser. rare.
1611. Cotgr., Desapareilleur, an vndresser; a maker vnreadie; a disorderer.
1658. Cokaine, Epithalamium, Poems, 134. The fearfull Virgin’s lead away;… And her undresse[r]s tell next morn, What she must rise.
