Word.ws English Dictionary

deck

UK/ˈdɛk/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈdek/

deck noun: any raised flat surface that can be walked on: a balcony; a porch; a raised patio; a flat rooftop. Also the ellipsis of slide deck.

deck: any raised flat surface that can be walked on: a balcony; a porch; a raised patio; a flat rooftop
Image: Al2, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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. The floorlike covering of the horizontal sections, or compartments, of a ship or boat. Small vessels have only one deck; larger ships have two or three decks.
    • Holonyms: watercraft, vessel, vessel
    • to swab the deck
  3. A main aeroplane surface, especially of a biplane or multiplane.
  4. A pack or set of playing cards.
  5. (broadly) A set of cards owned by each individual player and from which they draw when playing.
    Synonyms:
    library
  6. A headline consisting of one or more full lines of text; especially, a subheadline.
    • If there's a strapline or subdeck, write these after the main deck and don't use the same words.2005, Richard Keeble, Print Journalism: A Critical Introduction, page 114
  7. A collection of cards (pages or forms) in systems such as WML (Wireless Markup Language) and HyperCard.
    • The interaction model of WAP, originally developed for mobile phones to interact with information services in a web-like way, was based on Apple's HyperCard, and instead of pages, the user interacted with a deck of cards, which were interlinked by a scripting language.2008, Johan Hjelm, Why IPTV?: Interactivity, Technologies, Services, page 13
  8. (obsolete) A heap or store.
    • A paper-blurrer, who on all occasions, / For all times, and all season, hath such trinkets / Ready in the deck1655, Philip Massinger, The Guardian, act III, scene iii
  9. (slang) A folded paper used for distributing illicit drugs.
    • 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.2007, Reports of cases argued and determined in the Supreme Court of New Jersey, volume 188
  10. (colloquial) The floor.
    • We hit the deck as bullets began to fly.
    • Williams fell to the deck. Following a lengthy check, he was replaced by Connor Roberts due to a suspected concussion - a scenario well explained by the stadium's staff over the PA system.2022 November 29, Ian Mitchelmore, “Wales put out of World Cup misery by England as sobering tournament must signal changing of the guard”, in WalesOnline
  11. (UK) The bottom of a water body.
    • Wily carp are quickly put on their guard by tight lines cutting through the water, so another common measure is to use a back lead to keep the line on the deck.2012, Peter Kaminsky, Greg Schwipps, “Part IV: Now You're Fishing”, in Fishing for Dummies, UK edition, Adapted by Dominic Garnett, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., page 298
  12. The stage.
  13. The multiset of graphs formed from a single graph by deleting a single vertex in all possible ways.

Verb (1)

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

  1. (transitive, uncommon) To furnish with a deck.
    • to deck a vessel
  2. (informal, transitive) To knock (someone) to the floor, especially with a single punch.
    • Wow, did you see her deck that guy who pinched her?
  3. (transitive, collectible card games) To cause (a player) to run out of cards to draw, usually making them lose the game.

Verb (2)

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

  1. (archaic, sometimes, transitive) To dress (someone) up, to clothe with more than ordinary elegance.
    • And deck my body in gay ornaments, / And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
    • Decke thy selfe now with Maiestie, and excellencie, and aray thy selfe with glory, and beautie.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 40:10
  2. (archaic, sometimes, transitive) To decorate (something).
    • (now the dew with spangles decked the ground)1700, John Dryden, transl., The Flower and the Leaf
    • The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
      the hills gird themselves with joy,
      the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
      the valleys deck themselves with grain,
      they shout and sing together for joy.2001, “Psalm 65”, in The Bible (English Standard Version), verses 12–13
  3. (transitive) To cover; to overspread.
    • Whether to deck with clouds the uncoloured sky, / Or wet the thirsty earth with falling showers1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...

Also used as

deck is also the ellipsis of slide deck.

deck is also the ellipsis of tape deck.

deck meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

deck in Hindi

डेक

deck in Marathi

डेक

deck in Urdu

ڈیک, ڈیک کرنا

deck in Bengali

ডেক, ডেক করা
More languagesFewer languages
deck in Telugu
డెక్
deck in Malayalam
ഡെക്ക്, ഡെക്
deck in Kannada
ಡೆಕ್
deck in Punjabi
ਡੈੱਕ, ਡੈੱਕ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
deck in Gujarati
ડેક, તૂતક
deck in Odia
ଡେକ୍, ଡେକ
deck in Nepali
डेक
deck in Tagalog
kubyerta
deck in Arabic
ظَهْر ẓahr, سَطْح saṭḥ
deck in Malay
geladak, dek
deck in Persian
عرشه arše
deck in Thai
ดาดฟ้า dàat-fáa, สำรับ sǎm-ráp
deck in Vietnamese
cỗ bài

Examples of deck in a sentence

  • There are thirteen cards of each of the four suits in a deck of playing cards.
  • The wind blew through her hair as she stood on the deck of the ship.
  • I saw the snake-like coils of the garden hose peeking out from under the deck.

All 40 example sentences with deck

Synonyms of deck

Forms of deck

Noun
pluraldecks
Verb
third-person singular presentdecks
present participledecking
past participledecked
pastdecked

Past tense of deck: decked

Plural of deck: decks

Origin of deck

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.

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”).

Words formed from deck

Phrases with deck

69 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with deck

44 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about deck

What does deck mean?
Deck means any raised flat surface that can be walked on: a balcony; a porch; a raised patio; a flat rooftop.
What is deck in Hindi?
Deck in Hindi is डेक. See Deck meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is deck?
Deck can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce deck?
Deck is pronounced /ˈdɛk/ (UK).
What is the plural of deck?
The plural of deck is decks.

Words near deck in the dictionary

  1. decivilization
  2. decivilize
  3. decivilized
  4. decivilizes
  5. decivilizing
  6. deck
  7. deck angle
  8. deck angles
  9. deck boat
  10. deck boats
  11. deck box

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deck (page history and authors); deck (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); deck (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); deck (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); deck (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); deck (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); deck (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); deck (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); deck (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); deck (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); deck (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); deck (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-deck.ogg.

Cite this entry: “deck.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/deck. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.