Obviously, you put dressing on a salad. Dressing, in this case, is a noun. Would the act of putting dressing on a salad use a form of the verb “dress”. For example, would you say the salad was “heavily dressed” to indicate it has a lot of dressing on it? I think most people would know what you meant, but would this be grammatically accurate?
“Dressing” is a verbal noun derived from “to dress (the salad).” (Remember the Three Stooges serving the salad undressed.) The OED has a first cite from 1504.
“To dress (a foodstuff)” dates from the 1300s. It originally meant a way of preparing a food: dressing a turkey, for instance. This involved the spices and sauces required in preparation, and by analogy, it was used for the sauce for salads.
It’s not a grammar issue; there’s no grammatic error in the phrase “heavily dressed.”
I’ve never seen that particular episode, but I can only imagine.
I would guess it’s something like the ideas held by the owners of ‘Hotel Paradiso’
Chuck may be a professional wordsmith but I have to disagree with him on this issue. The word dressing, as a food item, may have historically been a verb but it’s now firmly established as a noun and should be treated as such. In my opinion, it would be as incorrect to say a salad is heavily dressed as it would be to say it’s heavily tomatoed.
“Heavily dressed salad” sounds perfectly fine to my ears. It draws a little attention to itself, but it’s certainly understandable and is, as a quick google search for “dressed salad” reveals, a usage that at least has some proponents.
IMO, Chuck is right that this is not a grammar issue, but a usage question. And Nemo is right that although the expression would probably be understood by most people, it would not be seen as idiomatic by most experts, including me :D. (I think Nemo may have misunderstood Chuck’s point.)
However, I suspect the expression’s acceptability may vary in different geographical areas.
On of the dictonary definitions of “dress” is “to put dressing on a salad.” a simple google defnition search turns up at least two examples.
From Merriam-Webster Online:
So I think “heavily dressed salad” is at least grammatically acceptable.