dress down是數落、訓斥某人的意思。比如He dressed her down.他把她數落一番。
dress普遍的中文意思是「穿衣服」，但是在西元15世紀，dress有「責備、懲罰」之意，介詞down在幾個世紀後才被加上去。所以，dress down演變成體罰或者是言語上的責罵。
看看老外聊天時怎麼用dress down：
A Isn't it kind of cruel for Jerry to dress Jane down like that in front of everybody？
B He's so mean.Jane's probably going to eat a bag of doughnuts again.
A 傑裡那樣在大家面前數落簡也太毒了吧。
B 他就是這麼刻薄。簡大概又要吃整袋甜甜圈了吧。
dress down例句精選：
Campbell dressed them down in public.
坎貝爾當眾訓斥了他們。
Nancy's work is a mess, you know. I'm afraid he'll dress her down.
你知道，南希工作幹得一團糟，恐怕老闆要訓斥她了。
That man doesn't talk reason. it's a splendid chance to dress him down a bit.
這人不講道理，這個是機會，得好好說他一下。
想表示數落某人、找麻煩時，除了dress down你還可以這樣說：
give a hard time 找麻煩
The boss gave Dave a hard time about the report he forgot to write.
戴夫因為忘記做報告被老闆找麻煩。
underfire 遭受批評
Our department came under fire for the decision to give out bottled water.
我們部門因為決定發送瓶裝水而遭到批評。