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adorn
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
adorn
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
wall
▪ Several of Gemma's paintings adorn the walls.
▪ Fortunately, there's usually groovy soul music playing and eye-catching art adorning the walls.
▪ Vast modem frescoes adorned the walls of old buildings, and everywhere seemed to be filled with activity and colour.
▪ Large, colorful graphs and charts will adorn the walls of most offices and factories of the workplace of the future.
▪ Roman art continued to adorn the walls of churches and the sides of sarcophagi.
▪ Their walk advertised a circus whose posters had adorned walls and lampposts for the past week.
▪ These various ratings adorned the walls.
▪ An equine print after the style of Stubbs adorned the longest wall.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Rings and gems adorned the fingers of both her hands.
▪ The bridesmaids had adorned their heads with flowers.
▪ The walls of the church were richly adorned with carvings and pictures.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Expect Mark and Jason Lee to adorn your screens right about now.
▪ He dyed doves various bright colours to fly around and adorn the folly and the town.
▪ Large, colorful graphs and charts will adorn the walls of most offices and factories of the workplace of the future.
▪ Lava lamps adorned the stage, while watery, pulsating lights flashed behind them.
▪ On a sunny day, it shimmers brightly, almost obscuring the fine frescoes and reliefs that now adorn the structure.
▪ She had been asking him about the little wooden cities which adorned the shelves in her room.
▪ The facades of the buildings were adorned with rich armorial bearings, which Rodrigo Vivero had described with admiration in 1609.
▪ Vast modem frescoes adorned the walls of old buildings, and everywhere seemed to be filled with activity and colour.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Adorn

Adorn \A*dorn"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Adorned; p. pr. & vb. n. Adorning.] [OE. aournen, anournen, adornen, OF. aorner, fr. L. aaornare; ad + ornare to furnish, embellish. See Adore, Ornate.] To deck or dress with ornaments; to embellish; to set off to advantage; to render pleasing or attractive.

As a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
--Is

  1. lxi. 10.

    At church, with meek and unaffected grace, His looks adorned the venerable place.
    --Goldsmith.

    Syn: To deck; decorate; embellish; ornament; beautify; grace; dignify; exalt; honor.

    Usage: To Adorn, Ornament, Decorate, Embellish. We decorate and ornament by putting on some adjunct which is attractive or beautiful, and which serves to heighten the general effect. Thus, a lady's head-dress may be ornament or decorated with flowers or jewelry; a hall may be decorated or ornament with carving or gilding, with wreaths of flowers, or with hangings. Ornament is used in a wider sense than decorate. To embellish is to beautify or ornament richly, not so much by mere additions or details as by modifying the thing itself as a whole. It sometimes means gaudy and artificial decoration. We embellish a book with rich engravings; a style is embellished with rich and beautiful imagery; a shopkeeper embellishes his front window to attract attention. Adorn is sometimes identical with decorate, as when we say, a lady was adorned with jewels. In other cases, it seems to imply something more. Thus, we speak of a gallery of paintings as adorned with the works of some of the great masters, or adorned with noble statuary and columns. Here decorated and ornamented would hardly be appropriate. There is a value in these works of genius beyond mere show and ornament. Adorn may be used of what is purely moral; as, a character adorned with every Christian grace. Here neither decorate, nor ornament, nor embellish is proper.

Adorn

Adorn \A*dorn"\, n. Adornment. [Obs.]
--Spenser.

Adorn

Adorn \A*dorn"\, a. Adorned; decorated. [Obs.]
--Milton.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
adorn

late 14c., "to decorate, embellish," also "be an ornament to," from Old French aorner "to order, arrange, dispose, equip; adorn," from Latin adornare "equip, provide, embellish," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + ornare "prepare, furnish, adorn, fit out," from stem of ordo "order" (see order (n.)). The -d- was reinserted by French scribes 14c., in English from late 15c. Related: Adorned; adorning.

Wiktionary
adorn

n. (context obsolete English) adornment vb. To make more beautiful and attractive; to decorate.

WordNet
adorn
  1. v. 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]

Wikipedia
Adorn

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
  • "Adorn" (song), a song by Miguel
Adorn (song)

"Adorn" is a song by American singer Miguel, written and recorded as the first single from his second studio album Kaleidoscope Dream (2012). It was entirely written and produced by Miguel, who was inspired by his girlfriend and a series of dreams he had prior to writing the song.

"Adorn" was released to iTunes on August 7, 2012. It peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, becoming Miguel's most successful single to date. The song was received positively by critics, being voted the year's second best single in the annual Pazz & Jop poll while earning Miguel three Grammy Award nominations. It was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Usage examples of "adorn".

In this state of general security, the leisure, as well as opulence, both of the prince and people, were devoted to improve and to adorn the Roman empire.

To protect his person, and to adorn his glory with the trophies of their own exploits, were the most sacred of their duties.

He possessed the elegant accomplishments of a poet and orator, which dignify as well as adorn the humblest and the most exalted station.

On days of general festivity, it was the custom of the ancients to adorn their doors with lamps and with branches of laurel, and to crown their heads with a garland of flowers.

The names of Seneca, of the elder and the younger Pliny, of Tacitus, of Plutarch, of Galen, of the slave Epictetus, and of the emperor Marcus Antoninus, adorn the age in which they flourished, and exalt the dignity of human nature.

To collect, to dispose, and to adorn a series of fourscore years, in an immortal work, every sentence of which is pregnant with the deepest observations and the most lively images, was an undertaking sufficient to exercise the genius of Tacitus himself during the greatest part of his life.

It may be sufficient to observe, that whatever could adorn the dignity of a great capital, or contribute to the benefit or pleasure of its numerous inhabitants, was contained within the walls of Constantinople.

This glorious deliverance would be speedily improved and magnified by the pious art of the clergy of Jerusalem, and the active credulity of the Christian world and, at the distance of twenty years, a Roman historian, careless of theological disputes, might adorn his work with the specious and splendid miracle.

He was received at Sigan, the capital of the monarchy, by the troops, the mandarins, and the emperor himself, with all the honors that could adorn and disguise the triumph of Chinese vanity.

Immediately before the battle of Verona, he visited the tent of his mother and sister, and requested, that on a day, the most illustrious festival of his life, they would adorn him with the rich garments which they had worked with their own hands.

To assert and adorn his title, he was reduced to sell or mortgage the best of his patrimony.

The kingdoms of Transoxiana and Persia were the proper field which he labored to cultivate and adorn, as the perpetual inheritance of his family.

Constantinople, who delighted to repeat, perhaps to adorn, the tale of their misery.

Petrarch sighs an indignant complaint, that the ancient capital of the world should adorn from her own bowels the slothful luxury of Naples.

Goya elected to adorn the dining room of his house, the Quinta del Sordo.