garnish

American  

[gahr-nish] / ˈgɑr nɪʃ /

verb (used with object)

1. to provide or supply with something ornamental; adorn; decorate.

   a free-standing wall whose lower reaches are garnished by hanging gardens.

   Synonyms:

   enhance, bedizen, bedeck, trim, beautify, ornament, embellish

2. to provide (a food) with something that adds flavor, decorative color, etc..

   to garnish boiled potatoes with chopped parsley.

3. Law.

   1. to attach (as money due or property belonging to a debtor) by garnishment; garnishee.

      The court garnished his wages when he refused to pay child support.

   2. to summon in, so as to take part in litigation already pending between others.

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noun

1. something placed around or on a food or in a beverage to add flavor, decorative color, etc.

2. adornment or decoration.

   Synonyms:

   garniture, ornament

3. Chiefly British. a fee formerly demanded of a new convict or worker by the warden, boss, or fellow prisoners or workers.

garnish British  

/ ˈɡɑːnɪʃ /

verb

1. to decorate; trim

2. to add something to (food) in order to improve its appearance or flavour

3. law

   1. to serve with notice of proceedings; warn

   2. obsolete to summon to proceedings already in progress

   3. to attach (a debt)

4. slang to extort money from

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noun

1. a decoration; trimming

2. something, such as parsley, added to a dish for its flavour or decorative effect

3. obsolete a payment illegally extorted, as from a prisoner by his jailer

Other Word Forms

• garnishable
  adjective
• garnisher
  noun
• overgarnish
  verb (used with object)
• regarnish
  verb (used with object)
• undergarnish
  verb (used with object)
• ungarnished
  adjective
• well-garnished
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of garnish

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English garnishen, from Old French garniss- (extended stem of garnir, guarnir “to furnish,” from Germanic ); cf. warn

Explanation

A garnish is a decoration or embellishment, often used with food. It is also the verb that means to do the decorating: you can garnish a baked fish with a garnish of lemon slices and parsley. Long ago, in 14th-century France, the word garnir meant, in part, "to warn or defend," a meaning that survived in one of the meanings of garnish, "to seize wages to pay a debt." But word meanings often branch out, and "to warn" came to mean "to arm oneself," and later "to fit out or equip." It came to mean "to embellish" in Middle English, and, from the late 17th century on, the word was used commonly for the embellishment or decoration of food.

Example Sentences

Fold in dill, chives and scallions — not as garnish, but as punctuation.

From Salon • Apr. 14, 2026

But 92 minutes in Manchester quickly did for any such optimism, with the number of potential trophies that might garnish Salah's farewell swiftly halved.

From BBC • Apr. 4, 2026

According to the Education Department, the government will garnish wages “only after student and parent borrowers have been provided sufficient notice and opportunity to repay their loans.”

From Barron's • Dec. 23, 2025

Layer with turkey, gravy and cranberry sauce—or add a caviar garnish to your Thanksgiving spread.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 15, 2025

I know only that, in the course of negotiations, they elected to deliver Pro Bono as a garnish to a gentleman donor in the Virginia Colony.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson