reform dress

noun

Women's clothing that avoided corseting and other constraints in favour of a looser, more comfortable fit, especially as part of a movement to make women's clothing more healthy and rational; an individual dress made according to such principles.

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounreform dress (plural reform dresses)

plural reform dresses

  1. historicalWomen's clothing that avoided corseting and other constraints in favour of a looser, more comfortable fit, especially as part of a movement to make women's clothing more healthy and rational; an individual dress made according to such principles.

    We cannot see wherein the reform dress we recommend is unbecoming.

    1871, The Health Reformer, volumes 6-7, page 156
    1 more example

    Many women had a horror of reform dress, regarding it as nothing more than a flabby, badly fitting bag made of cheap material and depriving the wearer of the very last vestige of gracefulness and elegance.

    2003, Patricia Anne Cunningham, Reforming Women's Fashion, 1850-1920, page 100
Cite this entry
APA

reform dress. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/reform%20dress

MLA

“reform dress.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/reform%20dress. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “reform dress,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/reform%20dress.

Source: reform dress on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.