bedeck
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
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.
The dining room table, where the sisters wrote, is strewn with manuscripts, quill pens and tea cups; a bonnet and shawl bedeck a chair in the small kitchen.
From Los Angeles Times • May 14, 2026
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
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
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.
