garnishes

Noun

garnish (countable and uncountable, plural garnishes)

1. A set of dishes, often pewter, containing a dozen pieces of several types.
2. Pewter vessels in general.
   • The accounts of collegiate and monastic institutions give abundant entries of the price of pewter vessels, called also garnish.1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 478
3. Something added for embellishment.
   • First Poets, all the World agrees,
     Write half to profit, half to please
     Matter and figure They produce;
     For Garnish This, and That for Use;1718, Matthew Prior, Alma: or, The Progress of the Mind, Canto 1, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 333

   Synonyms:

   decoration, ornament

4. Clothes; garments, especially when showy or decorative.
   • So are you, sweet,
     Even in the lovely garnish of a boy.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
5. Something set round or upon a dish as an embellishment.
6. (obsolete, slang) Fetters.

See all 15 meanings of garnish