deck definition

English deck definition

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɛk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛk
• Homophone: deque

Etymology 1

From Middle English dekke, borrowed from Middle Dutch dec (“roof, covering”), from Middle Dutch decken, from Old Dutch thecken, from Proto-West Germanic *þakkjan, from Proto-Germanic *þakjaną. Formed the same: German Decke (“covering, blanket”). Doublet of thatch and thack.

Noun

deck (plural decks)

1. Any raised flat surface that can be walked on: a balcony; a porch; a raised patio; a flat rooftop.
2. (nautical) The floorlike covering of the horizontal sections, or compartments, of a ship. Small vessels have only one deck; larger ships have two or three decks.

   to swab the deck

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314:

     Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, […]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.

3. (aviation) A main aeroplane surface, especially of a biplane or multiplane.
4. (card games) A pack or set of playing cards.
5. (card games, by extension) A set of cards owned by each individual player and from which they draw when playing.

   Synonym: library

6. (journalism) A headline consisting of one or more actual lines of text.
   • 2005, Richard Keeble, Print Journalism: A Critical Introduction (page 114)

     If there's a strapline or subdeck, write these after the main deck and don't use the same words.

7. A set of slides for a presentation.
   • 2011, David Kroenke, Donald Nilson, Office 365 in Business

     Navigate to the location where your PowerPoint deck is stored and select it.

8. (obsolete) A heap or store.
   • 1655, Philip Massinger, The Guardian, Act III, scene iii:

     A paper-blurrer, who on all occasions, / For all times, and all season, hath such trinkets / Ready in the deck

9. (slang) A folded paper used for distributing illicit drugs.
   • 2007, Reports of cases argued and determined in the Supreme Court of New Jersey (volume 188)

     Defendant placed the decks in his pocket and, after driving out of the city, gave one to Shore. While still in the car, Shore snorted half of the deck. When they returned to defendant's home, defendant handed Shore a second deck of heroin.

10. (slang) The floor.

    We hit the deck as bullets began to fly.

11. (theater) The stage.
12. Short for tape deck.
    • 1985, Byte (volume 10, page 111)

      The general operating procedure for recording a tape is basically the same as for playing it. After you insert the tape in the deck, you fast forward it to the end and then completely rewind it.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

deck (third-person singular simple present decks, present participle decking, simple past and past participle decked)

1. (uncommon) To furnish with a deck, as a vessel.
2. (informal) To knock someone to the floor, especially with a single punch.

   Wow, did you see her deck that guy who pinched her?

3. (card games) To cause a player to run out of cards to draw, usually making them lose the game.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English dekken, from Middle Dutch dekken (“to cover”), from Old Dutch thecken, from Proto-West Germanic *þakkjan, from Proto-Germanic *þakjaną (“to roof; cover”).

Verb

deck (third-person singular simple present decks, present participle decking, simple past and past participle decked)

1. (transitive, sometimes with out) To dress (someone) up, to clothe with more than ordinary elegance.
   • c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene ii]:

     And deck my body in gay ornaments, / And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Job 40:10:

     Decke thy selfe now with Maiestie, and excellencie, and aray thy selfe with glory, and beautie.

   • 1919, William Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 39

     They call beautiful a dress, a dog, a sermon; and when they are face to face with Beauty cannot recognise it. The false emphasis with which they try to deck their worthless thoughts blunts their susceptibilities.

2. (transitive, sometimes with out) To decorate (something).
   • 1700, John Dryden (tr.), “The Flower and the Leaf”:

     (now the dew with spangles decked the ground)

3. (transitive) To cover; to overspread.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     Whether to deck with clouds the uncoloured sky, / Or wet the thirsty earth with falling showers

Usage notes

• See deck out

Derived terms

• bedeck

Translations

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German deck definition

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [dɛk]

Verb

deck

1. singular imperative of decken
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of decken

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Italian deck definition

Etymology

Borrowed from English deck.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɛk/
• Rhymes: -ɛk

Noun

deck m (invariable)

1. tape deck

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Luxembourgish deck definition

Verb

deck

1. second-person singular imperative of decken

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Romanian deck definition

Etymology

From English deck.

Noun

deck n (plural deckuri)

1. tape deck

Declension