decorated

1. 1
   adjective

   Made attractive by adding ornaments, patterns, or other items meant to please the eye.

   Like a bare wall transformed by hanging paintings and woven tapestries.

   The richly decorated ceiling drew every visitor's gaze upward.

   Her elaborately decorated cake won first place at the county fair.

   Similaradorned, embellished, ornate, decked

   Oppositeplain, bare, unadorned

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of decorate.

   The volunteers decorated the hall before the ceremony began.

   She has decorated every room in the new house.

   Note

   One spelling does two grammatical jobs: the simple past (they decorated the hall) and the past participle after have or be. Be decorated can mean two different things, because decorate covers both ornament and honor. A room is decorated for a party, and a soldier is decorated for bravery. The participle also turns up in programming, for a method extended by attaching a further code item.

3. 3
   adjective

   Honored with prizes, medals, or other awards, often for outstanding service or achievement.

   Like a champion whose chest is heavy with medals earned across many victories.

   The decorated firefighter received yet another commendation last spring.

   Many decorated veterans attended the memorial service downtown.

   Similarhonored, celebrated, distinguished

   Note

   Here the word measures honors held, and it is made for ranking: a decorated footballer, one of the most decorated agents. Because it grades, it takes more and most freely, and most decorated is its signature phrase for whoever holds the longest list of awards. Keep it apart from the ornamental sense: a decorated soldier wears medals, not garlands.

4. 4
   adjective

   Belonging to the ornate middle phase of English Gothic architecture, known for elaborate stone tracery and rich carving.

   The decorated tracery of the east window is among the finest in England.

   Architects added a decorated chancel to the older Norman church.

   Note

   An architectural label for the second of the three phases of English Gothic, not a measure of how much ornament a building carries. A window either belongs to the style or it does not, so this sense never takes more or most, unlike the everyday 'adorned' meaning. In architectural writing it is often shortened to dec.

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