Dressing: perhaps abbreviation of ATTIRING. Tiring women, or tire women: women that used to cut ladies hair, and dress them.
Definition taken from The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose.
Tipsey * TitNathan Bailey's 1736 Dictionary of canting and thieving slang
John S. Farmer's collection of canting songs and slang rhymes