• IPA: /dɛk/

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 ↗, page 0147 ↗:

     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. (cards) A pack or set of playing cards.
5. (cards, by extension) A set of cards owned by each individual player and from which they draw when playing.

   Synonyms: library

6. 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.

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

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

8. (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.

• German: Terrasse
• Italian: pedana, pavimento
• Russian: насти́л
• Spanish: piso, plataforma, balcón, terraza

• French: jeu de cartes
• German: Kartenstapel, Kartenspiel
• Italian: mazzo
• Portuguese: baralho
• Russian: коло́да
• Spanish: baraja

• French: pont
• German: Deck
• Italian: ponte, coperta, tolda
• Portuguese: convés, deque, deck
• Russian: па́луба
• Spanish: cubierta

deck (decks, present participle decking; 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 and usually lose the game as a result.

deck (decks, present participle decking; past and past participle decked)

1. (transitive, sometimes with out) To dress (someone) up, to clothe with more than ordinary elegance
   • 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3 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), imprinted at London: By 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 Floure and the Leafe:

     (now the dew with spangles decked the ground)

3. To cover; to overspread.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

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