garnish

American  

[gahr-nish] / ˈgɑr nɪʃ /

verb (used with object)

• garnishes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• garnished,
  past participle,  past
• garnishing
  present participle

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

• garnishes
  plural

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

---

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

Derived Forms

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

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• garnishes
  plural

Participles

• garnishing
  present
• garnished
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• garnish
  simple
• garnishes
  simple
• have garnished
  perfect
• has garnished
  perfect
• am garnishing
  progressive
• are garnishing
  progressive
• is garnishing
  progressive
• have been garnishing
  perfect progressive
• has been garnishing
  perfect progressive

Past

• garnished
  simple
• had garnished
  perfect
• was garnishing
  progressive
• were garnishing
  progressive
• had been garnishing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will garnish
  simple
• will have garnished
  perfect
• will be garnishing
  progressive
• will have been garnishing
  perfect progressive

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

See Examples For:

garnish garnishes garnished garnishing

Choose your own culinary adventure: The most advanced ordering system in the food industry is the multiple-choice menu that lets you assemble a masterpiece from every filling, topping, and garnish in existence.

From Slate ● Jul. 30, 2026

South Korean prosecutors sought a one-year jail term for the owner of a Michelin-starred restaurant accused of using ants as a dessert garnish, local media reported.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

A Ramp Gibson, a riff on the martini, came with a pickled ramp garnish instead of a pickled onion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026

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

From Salon ● Apr. 14, 2026

Federal law provides that a child-support enforcement officer can garnish up to 65 percent of an individual’s wages for child support.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

Few automobile exteriors are ever finished like this, with its broad, sterling-like chrome garnishes at the lower grille intakes, the rocker panels, exhaust outlets and bumpers, all smoothed perfectly into the blown-glass curvatures.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 2, 2026

In the trailer released earlier this month, Meghan garnishes a cake with raspberries and harvests honey in California, where she lives with her husband Prince Harry and two children.

From BBC ● Jan. 12, 2025

The garnishes and embellishments are as significant as the flavors themselves.

From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2024

Top with crabmeat, garnishes and the smallest swirl of olive oil.

From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2023

I cooked them a special candlelit dinner, complete with blackberries and cilantro sprigs as garnishes, and rice molded to the shape of an upside-down cup like I’d seen in a magazine.

From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau

While credit scores can suffer when borrowers are just a few months behind, entering default brings the possibility of more serious consequences, including garnished wages or Social Security payments.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026

The biggest consequence for defaulted borrowers is that they could have their wages, tax returns and Social Security garnished.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026

Three decades later, despite making payments and even having her wages garnished previously when she fell behind, she still owes $60,000.

From Salon ● Mar. 17, 2026

Your sibling who did not pay child support could have his income garnished or federal/state taxes intercepted to pay his former/estranged spouse; inheritance may also be garnished.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 18, 2026

Printed on it are processed meats, cold cuts as tall as he is, reds and pinks, gray at the edges, garnished with parsley sprigs the size of shrubs.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

The Education Department announced that it would start garnishing the wages of borrowers in default on their loans early next year.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 30, 2025

The Education Department said Tuesday that it will resume garnishing the wages of student loan borrowers who are in default starting early next year.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 23, 2025

Department of Education will begin garnishing wages from approximately 1,000 defaulted student loan borrowers early next year.

From Barron's ● Dec. 23, 2025

The U.N. has also sought to block North Koreans from working overseas in the hopes of preventing North Korea from garnishing the wages of such laborers.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 2, 2023

Besides being used as garnishing, it may be served as a breakfast dish.

From Hand-Book of Practical Cookery for Ladies and Professional Cooks by Pierre Blot