adorn

1 make more attractive by adding ornament, colour, etc.; "Decorate the room for the party"; "beautify yourself for the special day" [syn: decorate, grace, ornament, embellish, beautify]

2 be beautiful to look at; "Flowers adorned the tables everywhere" [syn: deck, decorate, grace, embellish, beautify]

3 furnish with power or authority; of kings or emperors [syn: invest, clothe]

English

Etymology

aournen, anournen, adornen, aorner, from aaornare; ad + ornare to furnish, embellish. See adore, ornate.

Pronunciation

• US: /ʌˈdoɹn/

• Rhymes with: -ɔː(r)n

Verb

1. Make more beautiful and attractive; to decorate.

   a lady was adorned with jewels

   a man adorned with noble statuary and columns

   a character adorned with every Christian grace

   a gallery of paintings was adorned with the works of some of the great masters

Synonyms

• beautify
• decorate
• deck
• grace
• ornament
• prettify

Translations

Adorn may refer to:

• Adorn (Middle-earth), a river of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium
• Barnstar, a decorative piece in the shape of a five-point star used to adorn the barn
• Fretwork, an interlaced decorative design that is either carved in low relief on a solid background, or cut out with a fretsaw, jigsaw or scrollsaw
• Instruct, See: Resh Lakish#Examples of his exegesis
• Others to Adorn (1938), book by Oliver St. John Gogarty
• Purfling, a narrow decorative wooden (sometimes abalone) strip inlaid into the top and (often) bottom plates of stringed instruments
• "To Adorn", song on Shape of Despair (album), by the funeral doom metal band

array, beautify, become one, bedeck, bedizen, bestow honor upon, blazon, color, confer distinction on, convolute, dandify, deck, deck out, decorate, dignify, distinguish, dizen, doll up, dress, dress up, elaborate, embellish, emblazon, embroider, enhance, enrich, fancy up, festoon, fig out, fix up, flourish, furbish, garnish, gild, glamorize, grace, gussy up, heighten, honor, intensify, involve, load with ornament, ornament, overcharge, overlay, overload, paint, prank, prank up, preen, prettify, pretty up, primp, primp up, prink, prink up, redecorate, redo, refurbish, set off, set out, signalize, smarten, smarten up, spruce up, titivate, trick out, trick up, trim, varnish