From cross- + dress.
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈkɹɔsˈdɹɛs/, /ˈkɹɒsˈdɹɛs/
cross-dress (third-person singular simple present cross-dresses, present participle cross-dressing, simple past and past participle cross-dressed)
- To wear clothes typically associated with the opposite sex.
1976 December 11, Sarah Montgomery, “Plea For Tolerance”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 24, page 4:The need to cross-dress is no more understood than the natural forms of differing sexual orientation.
- (immunology) To display (on the surface of a dendritic cell) antigens produced by a different cell.
2006 November 1, Brian P. Dolan et al., “Dendritic Cells Cross-Dressed with Peptide MHC Class I Complexes Prime CD8+ T Cells”, in Journal of Immunology, volume 177, number 9, →DOI, pages 6018–6024:Such DC are cross-dressed because they are wearing peptide-MHC complexes generated by other cells.
to wear clothes of the opposite sex