1. Put on special clothes to appear particularly appealing and attractive
   "She never dresses up, even when she goes to the opera";
   - fig out [informal], fig up [informal], gussy up [N. Amer, informal], fancy up [informal], trick up, trick out, attire, get up, rig out, tog up [informal], tog out [informal], doll up [informal]
    
2. Dress in a costume
   "We dressed up for Halloween as pumpkins";
   - costume
    
3. Wear clothes in a certain manner or of a certain style
   "he dressed up in a suit and tie";
   - dress
    
4. Make something appear superficially attractive
   "Don't try to dress up the unpleasant truth"; "The researcher tried to dress up the uninteresting data";
   - window-dress
    
5. Put a caparison on
   "dress up the horses for the festive occasion";
   - caparison, bard, barde [archaic]

Derived forms: dresses up, dressing up, dressed up

Type of: adorn, apparel [archaic], beautify, clothe, decorate, dress, embellish, enclothe [rare], fancify, fit out, garb, garment, get dressed, grace, habilitate [archaic], ornament, prettify, raiment [archaic], tog [informal]