attire Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun clothing of a distinctive style or for a particular occasion
    dress; garb.
    • formal attire
    • battle dress
  2. verb put on special clothes to appear particularly appealing and attractive
    rig out; dress up; fig out; overdress; trick up; deck out; prink; tog out; get up; fig up; deck up; fancy up; tog up; gussy up; trick out.
    • She never dresses up, even when she goes to the opera
    • The young girls were all fancied up for the party

WordNet

At*tire" transitive verb
Etymology
OE. atiren to array, dispose, arrange, OF. atirier; à (L. ad) + F. tire rank, order, row; of Ger. origin: cf. As. tier row, OHG. ziari, G. zier, ornament, zieren to adorn. Cf. Tire a headdress.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Attired present participle & verbal noun Attiring
Definitions
  1. To dress; to array; to adorn; esp., to clothe with elegant or splendid garments.
    Finely attired in a robe of white. Shak.
    With the linen miter shall he be attired. Lev. xvi. 4.
At*tire" noun
Definitions
  1. Dress; clothes; headdress; anything which dresses or adorns; esp., ornamental clothing.
    Earth in her rich attire. Milton.
    I 'll put myself in poor and mean attire. Shak.
    Can a maid forget her ornament, or a bride her attire? Jer. ii. 32.
  2. The antlers, or antlers and scalp, of a stag or buck.
  3. (Bot.) The internal parts of a flower, included within the calyx and the corolla. Obs. Johnson.

Webster 1913