garnish
nounEtymology
From Middle English garnysshen, from Old French garniss-, stem of certain forms of the verb garnir, guarnir, warnir (“to provide, furnish, avert, defend, warn, fortify, garnish”), from a conflation of Old Frankish *warnijan (“to refuse, deny”) and *warnōn (“warn, protect, prepare, beware, guard oneself”), from Proto-Germanic *warnijaną (“to worry, care, heed”) and Proto-Germanic *warnōną (“to warn”); both from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to defend, protect, cover”). Cognate with Old English wiernan (“to withhold, be sparing of, deny, refuse, reject, decline, forbid, prevent from, avert”) and warnian (“to warn, caution, take warning, take heed, guard oneself against, deny”). More at warn.
8 senses
A set of dishes, often pewter, containing a dozen pieces of several types.
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:
Something added for embellishment.
- 1718, Matthew Prior, Alma: or, The Progress of the Mind, Canto 1, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 333, 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;
- This hard-headed old Overreach approved of the sentimental song, as the suitable garnish for girls, and also as fundamentally fine, sentiment being the right thing for a song.1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Book I, Chapter 12:
1 more example
- There had been a semblance of chivalry in the attitude from which, at the beginning of their marriage, he had briefly regarded her; but forty-seven years had efficiently disposed of that garnish of politeness.1972, William Trevor, “The Grass Widows”, in The Collected Stories, New York: Viking, published 1992, page 228:
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] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vi]:
Historical, Slang A fee; specifically, in English jails, formerly an unauthorized fee demanded from a newcomer by the older prisoners.
- 1699, B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, London: W. Hawes et al., Garnish money, what is customarily spent among the Prisoners at first coming in.
- This person then […] acquainted him that it was the custom of the place for every prisoner, upon his first arrival there, to give something to the former prisoners to make them drink. This, he said, was what they called garnish; and concluded with advising his new customer to draw his purse upon the present occasion.1751 December (indicated as 1752), Henry Fielding, chapter 3, in Amelia. […], volume I, London: […] [William Strahan] for A[ndrew] Millar […], →OCLC, book I, page 13:
- Derived terms
- all garnish and no meat, garnish bolt