adorn implies an enhancing by something beautiful in itself.
a diamond necklace adorned her neck
decorate suggests relieving plainness or monotony by adding beauty of color or design.
decorate a birthday cake
ornament and embellish imply the adding of something extraneous, ornament stressing the heightening or setting off of the original,
a white house ornamented with green shutters
embellish often stressing the adding of superfluous or adventitious ornament.
embellish a page with floral borders
beautify adds to embellish a suggestion of counterbalancing plainness or ugliness.
will beautify the grounds with flower beds
deck implies the addition of something that contributes to gaiety, splendor, or showiness.
a house all decked out for Christmas
garnish suggests decorating with a small final touch and is used especially in referring to the serving of food.
an entrée garnished with parsley
Examples of deck in a Sentence
Noun
We stood on the deck and watched dolphins swim near the ship.
A number of passengers had come on deck.
a seat on the streetcar's top deck
a cabin on B deck
We sat in the lower deck.
We ate out on the deck. Verb
We spent hours decking the chapel with flowers before the wedding.
He decked him with one punch.
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Noun
Food and Drink Meals at Ivory Lodge are served either inside the main dining area or on the deck, weather permitting.—Heather Richardson, Travel + Leisure, 8 Dec. 2025 That includes clean, streamlined lines across the white exterior’s many decks.—Nicole Hoey, Robb Report, 8 Dec. 2025
Verb
With Americans decking the halls, one mother wants to help families remember the reason for the season.—Ashley J. Dimella, FOXNews.com, 7 Dec. 2025 Tour The Decorations At The Davis Mansion The Davis Mansion is a beautiful example of Greek Revival architecture that's worth visiting any time of year, but particularly at the holidays when the staff decks the halls with festive displays.—Heather Bien, Southern Living, 5 Dec. 2025 See All Example Sentences for deck
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English dekke covering of a ship, from Middle Dutch *dec covering, probably from Middle Low German vordeck, from vordecken to cover, from vor- for- + decken to cover; akin to Old High German decchen to cover — more at thatch
Verb
Dutch dekken to cover; akin to Old High German decchen
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