deck

Pluraldecks

Formsdecks, decking, decked

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A floorlike platform extending across the hull of a ship or boat; small craft usually have one, larger vessels several.

   We stood on the upper deck as the ferry crossed the harbor.

   Waves swept across the deck during the storm, and the crew clipped on safety lines.

   Note

   The covering that gave the word its name: deck comes from Middle Dutch dec, "roof, covering," and is a doublet of thatch. On a vessel it closes over the hull, and the room it offers is reckoned as deck space; Emerson Hough's The Purchase Price (1910) finds even the Mount Vernon's deck space too cramped for privacy. The chore that goes with it is fixed in the phrase to swab the deck.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   Any raised, level platform built to be walked on, such as a balcony, porch, raised patio, or flat rooftop.

   They built a cedar deck off the kitchen last summer.

   Guests gathered on the rooftop deck to watch the fireworks.

   Similarterrace

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A pack or complete set of playing cards.

   He cut the deck before the dealer handed out the hands.

   The magician fanned the deck and asked her to pick a card.

   Similarpack

   Note

   The card table's word, and the base that a player's own deck extends. Pack names the same thing, and either word takes the dealer's verbs: you shuffle, cut and deal from the deck. When the cards are spoken of as one physical stack, deck is the natural choice, as in fanning or cutting the deck.

4. 4
   verbcolloquialtransitive

   To hit someone hard enough to send them to the floor, often with just one punch.

   The boxer decked his opponent in the first round.

   Insult his sister again and he'll deck you.

   Similarfloor, flatten, drop

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To decorate something.

   Every winter the shop owners deck their storefronts with ribbon and evergreen branches.

   Volunteers decked the town square with flags for the parade.

   Similardecorate, adorn, festoon, trim

   Note

   Where the dressing-up verb works on people, this one works on things: storefronts, squares, the ground itself. The ornament usually comes in with with. John Dryden's The Flower and the Leaf (1700) has the dew that "with spangles decked the ground." Out may follow the verb for emphasis, as in a hall decked out for a party.

6. 6
   nounabbreviationellipsis

   Ellipsis of slide deck: a set of slides for a presentation.

   The marketing team revised the deck three times before the product launch.

   His deck had forty slides, so the meeting ran long.

   Note

   A clipping of slide deck, and the slides need not be on a screen: the full form covers physical slides as well as digital ones. The program's name often serves as a modifier, as in a PowerPoint deck. Because the clipped form drops slide, context does the work. Next to presenting or PowerPoint it is clear, but next to cards it is not.

7. 7
   nounabbreviationellipsis

   Ellipsis of tape deck.

   He slid the mixtape into the deck and pressed play.

   The deck chewed up her favorite cassette last week.

   Note

   A clipping of tape deck, which names the machine itself, the tape recorder. Byte magazine in 1985 tells its readers to insert the tape in the deck, then fast-forward and rewind it before recording. The tape goes in, on or out of the deck, and the deck plays, records or rewinds.

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To dress someone up in clothes that are finer or more elegant than usual.

   The stylists decked the actress in borrowed diamonds for the premiere.

   For the festival, families deck their children in embroidered costumes.

   Similardress, array, adorn, attire

   Note

   A separate word from the deck of ships and cards, though a close cousin: it comes from Middle Dutch dekken, "to cover." So decked is two words, meaning dressed up here and knocked down in the punching verb. People are decked in finery, as in Shakespeare's Henry VI, or decked with something. The King James Bible of 1611 has "Decke thy selfe now with Maiestie." Out often follows: decked out.

9. 9
   nouncolloquialcountable

   The floor.

   The glass shattered and sent shards skidding across the deck.

   He was so exhausted after the double shift that he lay down right there on the deck.

   Similarfloor, ground

   Note

   Mostly heard in fixed phrases: people hit the deck when they dive for cover. In Ian Mitchelmore's 2022 World Cup report, Williams falls to the deck, which is the pitch rather than any floor. The phrase stretches to whatever ground someone drops onto. Its active counterpart is the verb for knocking someone down. Outside such phrases, floor is the safer choice.

10. 10
    nouncountable

    A set of cards owned by an individual player, from which that player draws during play.

    His deck relies on cheap creatures that can attack in the first few turns.

    She swapped two cards out of her deck after losing the first match.

    Note

    This sense stretches the shared pack to games in which every player brings their own cards. In collectible and deck-building games, assembling and tuning this personal set is a central part of strategy, which is why players talk of building a deck. Some games call the same draw pile a library. Exhausting it is what the verb to deck an opponent describes.

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