If you dress something up, you try to make it seem more attractive, acceptable, or interesting than it really is. Politicians dress up their ruthless ambition as a pursuit of the public good However you dress it up, a bank only exists to lend money. see also dressed up, dressing-up
put on special clothes to appear particularly appealing and attractive; "She never dresses up, even when she goes to the opera"; "The young girls were all fancied up for the party"
If you dress up or dress yourself up, you put on different clothes, in order to make yourself look smarter than usual or to disguise yourself. You do not need to dress up for dinner Little girls dress up as angels for fiestas