deck

DEK/dɛk/

21 meanings of deck

1
nouncountable
A floor on a ship or boat. Small boats have one, and big ships have several.
Like the floors of a tall building, but on a ship.
The passengers stood on the deck and watched the sea.
Sailors cleaned the deck of the ship every morning.
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2
nouncountable
A raised flat area where people can walk or sit, like a porch or balcony.
We ate dinner outside on the deck behind the house.
The hotel has a deck on the roof where guests can sit in the sun.
Similarterrace
3
nouncountable
A complete set of playing cards used for games.
She shuffled the deck and dealt five cards to each player.
We can't play because two cards are missing from the deck.
Similarpack
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4
verbcolloquialtransitive
To hit someone so hard that they fall down.
If that guy pushes me again, I'm going to deck him.
She decked the robber with one punch and grabbed her purse back.
Similarfloor, flatten, drop
5
verbtransitive
To decorate something, for example with lights or flowers.
We deck the house with lights every December.
She decked the classroom with paper flowers for the party.
Similardecorate, adorn, festoon, trim
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6
nounabbreviationellipsis
Short for slide deck. Use it for the set of slides someone shows in a talk or meeting.
She stayed up late finishing the deck for tomorrow's meeting.
Can you email me the deck before our call?
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7
nounabbreviationellipsis
Short for tape deck. Use it for a machine that plays and records cassette tapes.
Dad put a cassette into the deck and turned up the volume.
The deck in his old car still plays his cassettes.
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8
verbtransitive
To dress someone in very fine or fancy clothes.
Her grandmother decked her in ribbons and lace for the family photo.
They deck the bride in gold jewelry before the wedding.
Similardress, array, adorn, attire
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9
nouncolloquialcountable
The floor that you stand or walk on.
His phone slipped out of his hand and hit the deck.
Pick your jacket up off the deck before someone steps on it.
Similarfloor, ground
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10
nouncountable
The set of cards that one player owns and draws from in a game.
Like a team you pick yourself before the game starts.
She built a deck full of dragon cards for the school tournament.
Each player shuffles their own deck before the game begins.
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11
nouncountable
The stage in a theater where actors and dancers perform.
The dancers practiced their steps on the deck before the show.
The crew swept the deck between the two performances.
Similarstage
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12
nouncountable
Smaller text printed under a main headline to give more detail about the story.
Like the smaller words under a movie poster's title that tell you more about it.
The deck under the headline explained why the school was closing.
Readers often skim only the headline and the deck before deciding to click.
Similarsubhead, subheadline
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13
verbtransitive
In card games, to make another player run out of cards to draw, so they usually lose.
Her plan was to deck him before he could play his best cards.
You can deck a slow player by making them draw extra cards every turn.
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14
verbtransitive
To cover something all over, the way flowers cover a spring field.
Snow decked the rooftops overnight.
Every spring, wildflowers deck the hills behind our house.
Similarcover, blanket, coat, carpet
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15
verbraretransitive
To build a flat covering or floor across the top of a boat.
Workers deck small fishing boats at the yard every winter.
They decked the old rowboat so rain would not fill it.
16
nouncountable
A main wing of an airplane, especially on an old plane with two or more wings stacked above each other.
Like bunk beds: the wings sit one above the other.
Strong wires joined the top deck of the old plane to the bottom one.
Each deck of the plane helped lift it into the air.
Similarwing
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17
nounBritishcountable
The ground at the bottom of a river or lake.
His bait sank slowly until it rested on the deck.
Carp feed right on the deck in cold weather.
Similarbottom, bed
Oppositesurface
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18
nouncountable
A group of pages or screens that work together as one unit in some computer programs.
Like a photo album: each picture is one card, and the album holds them all together.
The phone loaded the whole deck at once, so the next page opened fast.
Each quiz question lived on its own card inside the deck.
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19
nouncountable
In math, the set of smaller diagrams made by removing each point of a network, one at a time.
Like removing one block from a tower in every possible way and keeping a photo of each result.
A network with six points has six smaller diagrams in its deck.
The students drew the deck of a small network on the board.
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20
nounslangcountable
A small folded paper that holds an illegal drug.
The police found a deck of heroin in his coat pocket.
He bought a deck from the dealer on the corner.
Similarpacket, bag
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21
nounobsolete
A pile of things, or a supply kept for later.
A paper-blurrer, who on all occasions, / For all times, and all season, hath such trinkets / Ready in the deck
1655, Philip Massinger, The GuardianHere, deck means a pile or store kept ready to use later.
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Practice

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Origins

Meanings 1–4, 6–7, 9–13, 15–21

From Middle Dutch dec, meaning 'roof' or 'covering'.

Meanings 5, 8, 14

From Middle Dutch dekken, meaning 'to cover'.