decorator
Americannoun
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a person whose profession is the painting and wallpapering of buildings
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a person who decorates
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of decorator
Explanation
A decorator is a person whose job involves decorating rooms — fixing them up, painting, arranging furniture, and so on. Your uncle might hire a decorator to help him furnish his brand new, fancy vacation home. You can also call a decorator a designer or an interior designer. Skilled decorators are particularly good at combining colors, fabrics, rugs, and furniture styles to make a good-looking space. Even if you're not a professional decorator, you could offer to help a friend decorate her apartment, painting her walls bright orange and sewing fuzzy green pillows for her sofa. Decorator comes from the Latin word decorare, "to adorn, embellish, or beautify."
Vocabulary lists containing decorator
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:
For the costumes and sets, the technology was trained using sketches by Henri de Gissey, a costume designer and decorator for the court of King Louis XIV.
From Barron's ● May 4, 2026
My mom, Mickey, was an interior decorator, and my father, Stanley, owned an import/export business.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026
She first opens up to an interior decorator, when discussing plans for the Trump family to move into the White House.
From BBC ● Jan. 30, 2026
The set decorator, the painter, the greens person that puts the moss in is like, “Do you see where I put the moss right there? You see the moss right there?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2025
Grace Windsor Wexler wrote housewife, crossed it out, wrote decorator, crossed it out, and wrote heiress.
From "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin
This is especially true for the oversize ones, which holiday decorators say are superior in quality and creativity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
And yet: If the White House’s furniture, paintings, and wallpaper inspire the fervent scrutiny of the nation’s interior decorators, it is because meatier changes have been so rare.
From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2025
You have set builders and set decorators and hair, makeup, all kinds of things.
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2024
"We have a whole in-game economy of players that are home decorators," says Matt.
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2024
He was more nervous than all of the students put together: the actors, the set decorators, the lighting team, the guy handling the curtains.
From "Wonder" by R. J. Palacio
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.
