Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A platform extending horizontally from one side of a ship to the other.
  • noun A platform or surface likened to a ship's deck.
  • noun A roofless, floored structure, typically with a railing, that adjoins a house.
  • noun The roadway of a bridge or an elevated freeway.
  • noun The piece of hard material, usually wood or composite, to which the frames housing the wheels are attached on a skateboard or landboard.
  • noun A pack of playing cards.
  • noun A group of data processing cards.
  • noun A tape deck.
  • transitive verb To furnish with or as if with a deck.
  • transitive verb Slang To knock down.
  • idiom (clear the deck) To prepare for action.
  • idiom (hit the deck) To get out of bed.
  • idiom (hit the deck) To fall or drop to a prone position.
  • idiom (hit the deck) To prepare for action.
  • idiom (on deck) On hand; present.
  • idiom Sports (on deck) Waiting to take one's turn, especially as a batter in baseball.
  • transitive verb To clothe with finery; adorn. Often used with out:
  • transitive verb To decorate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cover; overspread; invest; especially, to array or clothe with something resplendent or ornamental; adorn; embellish; set out: as, to deck one's self for a wedding; she was decked with jewels.
  • Nautical, to furnish with or as with a deck, as a vessel.
  • In mining, to load or unload (the cars or tubs) upon the cage.
  • [Cf. deck, n., 5.] To discard. Grose.
  • noun In car-building, the roof of the clearstory of a passenger-car, often called upper deck; also, the sloping roof on either side of the clearstory, often called lower deck. The word is used in many compounds, such as deck-hood, a projecting shelter to keep the rain out of the deck-end ventilator of a streetcar; deck-lamp, a gas-lamp suspended from the under side of the deck; deck-sash, a clearstory window.
  • To rig out: as, to deck the card-cylinder of a Jacquard loom.
  • noun A covering; anything that serves as a sheltering cover.
  • noun An approximately horizontal platform or floor extending from side to side of a ship or of a part of a ship, as of a deck-house, and supported by beams and carlines.
  • noun In mining, the platform of the cage; that part of the cage on which the cars stand or the men ride. Cages are sometimes built with as many as four decks.
  • noun A pile of things laid one upon another; a heap; a store; a file, as of cards or papers.
  • noun A pack of cards containing only those necessary to play any given game: as, a euchre deck; a bezique deck.
  • noun That part of a pack which remains after the deal, and from which cards may be drawn during the course of the game.
  • noun To command every part of the deck, as with small arms, from the tops of an attacking vessel, To take off or carry away all the stakes on a card-table; hence, generally, to gain everything.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun 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.
  • noun (Navy) a deck next below the gun deck, where the hammocks of the crew are swung.
  • noun (River Steamers) the deck on which the boilers are placed.
  • noun any continuous, unbroken deck from stem to stern.
  • noun (Navy) a deck below the spar deck, on which the ship's guns are carried. If there are two gun decks, the upper one is called the main deck, the lower, the lower gun deck; if there are three, one is called the middle gun deck.
  • noun that portion of the deck next below the spar deck which is between the mainmast and the cabin.
  • noun (River Steamers, etc.) the upper deck, usually a light deck, erected above the frame of the hull.
  • noun the deck or part of a deck where the cables are stowed, usually below the water line.
  • noun the deck forming the roof of a poop or poop cabin, built on the upper deck and extending from the mizzenmast aft.
  • noun the part of the upper deck abaft the mainmast, including the poop deck when there is one.
  • noun Sometimes a light deck fitted over the upper deck.
  • noun the highest deck of the hull, extending from stem to stern.
  • noun (arch.) The upper part or top of a mansard roof or curb roof when made nearly flat.
  • noun (Railroad) The roof of a passenger car.
  • noun A pack or set of playing cards.
  • noun obsolete A heap or store.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English dekke, from Middle Dutch dec, roof, covering; see (s)teg- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Dutch dekken, to cover, from Middle Dutch decken; see (s)teg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English dekke, from Middle Dutch deck ("roof, covering").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle Dutch dekken ("to cover").

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Examples

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  • in reference to a power point presentation.

    October 19, 2007