cross-dress

• crossdress
• xdress (abbreviation)

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)

1. 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.

2. (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.

• transvest (formal)

• cross-dresser
• cross-dressing