garnish

Meanings

Verb

• To decorate with ornaments; to adorn; to embellish.
• To ornament with something placed around it.
• To furnish; to supply.
• To fit with fetters; to fetter.
• To warn by garnishment; to give notice to.
• To have (money) set aside by court order (particularly for the payment of alleged debts); to garnishee.

Noun

• A set of dishes, often pewter, containing a dozen pieces of several types.
• Pewter vessels in general.
• Something added for embellishment.
• Clothes; garments, especially when showy or decorative.
• Something set round or upon a dish as an embellishment.
• Fetters.
• A fee; specifically, in English jails, formerly an unauthorized fee demanded from a newcomer by the older prisoners.
• Cash.

Origin

• From Middle English garnischen, from Old French garnir, stem of certain forms of the verb garnir, guarnir, warnir, from a conflation of Old Frankish *warnjan ("to refuse, deny") and *warnon, from Proto-Germanic *warnijaną and Proto-Germanic *warnōną ("to warn"); both from Proto-Indo-European *wer-. Cognate with Old English wiernan and warnian. More at warn.