I've encountered a person learning English using "dress" for a piece of clothing that covers the top half of her body (and possibly her legs as well).
I was under the impression that "dress" used to mean clothing in general, but nowadays is more commonly used to mean "skirt".
However, I looked up Wiktionary and Cambridge Dictionaries Online, and both of them indicate it means a piece of clothing that covers the top half of the body and hangs down over the legs.
I'm not an expert on women's apparel. Was I mistaken in thinking that "dress" could be used for a synonym for "skirt"?
Answer
Dress can mean garb in the general sense.
But it can also mean a specific type of women's clothing. I used to think that dresses and skirts were all the same, but my wife has finally straightened me out.
A dress is a single piece of clothing that covers the upper and lower parts of the body:
whereas a skirt only covers from the waist down:
But some people (like me) don't understand the difference and tend to use the terms incorrectly – most people are very forgiving about it.
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