The influence of adiabatically trapped nonthermal polarization force on dressed dust acoustic solitary waves (DDASWs) in non-Maxwellian complex plasma is investigated. In particular, we focus our analysis on modifications induced by the Cairns–Gurevich polarization force and higher-order corrections on the main characteristics of the dust acoustic (DA) solitons (DASs). Using the renormalization method, we determined a new solution of the DA solitary waves (DASWs), written as a sum of the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K$</tex-math> </inline-formula> – <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$dV$</tex-math> </inline-formula> solution and the higher-order corrections contribution. Then, we numerically estimated the validity range of the dressed DA wave solutions, with and without the polarization force. Due to this latter force, only lower values of nonthermal parameter <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha$</tex-math> </inline-formula> ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha \lesssim 0.11$</tex-math> </inline-formula> ) are required for the dressed dust acoustic soliton (DDAS) solutions. In addition, we have investigated the impacts of various plasma parameters, namely, the nonthermal parameter <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha$</tex-math> </inline-formula> and polarization force <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$R$</tex-math> </inline-formula> on small-amplitude DDAS. The obtained results show that these parameters play a significant role in modifying the DDASWs. Interestingly, we illustrate that, due to the polarization force and for a fixed value of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha$</tex-math> </inline-formula> , the amplitudes of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K$</tex-math> </inline-formula> – <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$dV$</tex-math> </inline-formula> solitons, higher-order corrections potential, and dressed solitons increase. Furthermore, beyond certain values of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha$</tex-math> </inline-formula> , the higher-order corrections potential becomes rarefactive and consequently, the departure between the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K$</tex-math> </inline-formula> – <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$dV$</tex-math> </inline-formula> amplitude and the dressed dust acoustic (DDA) amplitude becomes more important.