bedeck
Americanverb (used with object)
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bedecks,
present (3rd person singular)
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bedecked,
past participle, past
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bedecking
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bedecksimple
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bedeckssimple
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have bedeckedperfect
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has bedeckedperfect
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am bedeckingprogressive
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are bedeckingprogressive
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is bedeckingprogressive
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have been bedeckingperfect progressive
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has been bedeckingperfect progressive
Past
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bedeckedsimple
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had bedeckedperfect
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was bedeckingprogressive
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were bedeckingprogressive
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had been bedeckingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bedeck
Explanation
To bedeck is to decorate or embellish. If you bedeck your house with streamers and balloons, you'll feel prepared for your brother's surprise party. Some people like to bedeck their homes, inside and out, during various holidays. In December, you might bedeck your front door with a wreath, your yard with inflatable Santas and candy canes, and your indoor Christmas tree with tinsel and lights. You don't hear bedeck's root, the verb deck, all that often — but it appears in the Christmas carol "Deck the Halls," and it comes from the Middle Dutch dekken, "to cover."
Vocabulary lists containing bedeck
"The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," Vocabulary from Act 3
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Chronicle of a Death Foretold
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The Left Hand of Darkness
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
With the magic of a clear glue varnish such as Modge Podge, you can bedeck everything from glassware, votives, pottery, frames, coasters and serving trays to handmade stationery or cards with your dried blossoms.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2023
So attention seemed merited by a 64-degree day when spring is in the air, fully formed blossoms bedeck the trees, and a weekend awaits us.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 25, 2022
Tents have been erected around Obama’s property and chairs and couches bedeck his spacious lawn for the last of the months-long preparations, according to the Mail.
From Fox News ● Aug. 7, 2021
Meaning no disrespect to "The Good Wife," "The Americans," "Top of the Lake," "Scandal" or any of the other dramas on that Metacritic lists, many of which I would bedeck with superlatives myself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2014
Many thighbones he burned on the gods’ altars and many a woven and golden ornament hung to bedeck them, in his satisfaction; he had not thought life held such glory for him.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
Hilberath said her tiny home is not big enough for her Christmas tree which instead bedecks the terrace but she was still grateful for the people who had helped put a roof over her head.
From Reuters ● Dec. 23, 2021
Save for a blip of a scene from “Thriller,” no official footage of music videos that might ignite a mote of nostalgia bedecks its architecture.
From Salon ● Mar. 3, 2019
Her distinctive crest, two facing T’s that resemble a medieval cross, bedecks ballet flats from Manhasset to Myanmar; her signature caftans billow above thousands of tummies; the vice president’s wife carries one of her handbags.
From New York Times ● Nov. 29, 2011
With solemn mien and pious air, S—k—r attends each call of grace; Loud eloquence bedecks his prayer, And formal sanctity his face.
From My Schools and Schoolmasters or The Story of my Education. by Hugh Miller
The young woman also, even here as everywhere else, bedecks herself as best she can; but fair she certainly is not in our eyes.
From The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II by Alexander Leslie
The 30-year-old curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario had been scrutinizing a portrait of a young Black woman bedecked in jewels and wearing a shimmering blue gown with pearls around her neck and wrists.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
Matt Gibson, 52, moors his sage-green houseboat, bedecked with plants, on the Regent's Canal near central London.
From Barron's ● Feb. 11, 2026
The Panshanger Community Centre in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, was bedecked with Union flag bunting and plastic chairs.
From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2026
The coffin, bedecked with flowers, was opened at a pavilion in the cemetery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2025
On March 10, 1962, a glamorous Katherine Johnson, bedecked in pearls and an elegant suit that would have made Jackie Kennedy proud, smiled from the front page of the Pittsburgh Courier.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
It was a show of tradition as the procession approached the castle, with the bright flag bedecking the late queen’s coffin standing out amid the more somber tones.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2022
At “puffy white,” the blossoms seemed pale globes bedecking trees and branches.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 19, 2022
“The Abolitionists hoped that bedecking slaves in Union blue and enlisting us in a fight for our own freedom would make men of us,” Etheridge says.
From New York Times ● Feb. 14, 2022
This goes some way to explain those famous collars bedecking the otherwise sober, black judicial robes.
From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2018
You might learn terrible secrets of the dressing-table—mamma is bedecking herself for dinner.
From Seven Keys to Baldpate by Earl Derr Biggers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
