DIZEN

bedizen, dizen

(verb) dress up garishly and tastelessly

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Verb

dizen (third-person singular simple present dizens, present participle dizening, simple past and past participle dizened)

(transitive) To dress with flax for spinning.

(transitive) To dress with clothes; attire; deck; bedizen.

(transitive, UK dialectal) To dress showily; adorn; dress out.

Source: Wiktionary


Diz"en, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dizened; p. pr. & vb. n. Dizening.] Etym: [Perh. orig., to dress in a foolish manner, and allied to dizzy: but cf. also OE. dysyn (Palsgrave) to put tow or flax on a distaff, i. e., to dress it. Cf. Distaff.]

1. To dress; to attire. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.

2. To dress gaudily; to overdress; to bedizen; to deck out. Like a tragedy queen, he has dizened her out. Goldsmith. To-morrow when the masks shall fall That dizen Nature's carnival. Emerson.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

27 May 2025

DIRECTIONALITY

(noun) the property of being directional or maintaining a direction; “the directionality of written English is from left to right”


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Coffee Trivia

In the 18th century, the Swedish government made coffee and its paraphernalia (including cups and dishes) illegal for its supposed ties to rebellious sentiment.

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