Meanings
plural garnitures
- Something that garnishes; a decoration, adornment or embellishment
[…] I fancied Cuthbert's reddening face / Beneath its garniture of curly gold, / Dear fellow, till I almost felt him fold / An arm in mine to fix me to the place / That way he used.
1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XVI2 more examples
The Countess came forward to meet them, looking more beautiful than ever. But it was not now that Emily envied her beauty;—no philosopher like a girl in love, to feel, for the time being, utter indifference to all possible pomp and garniture.
1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 251They believed that the ladies and the gentlemen alike had covered them with endearments, were candidly, gushingly glad to make their acquaintance. They had not in the least seen what was manner, the minimum of decent profession, and what the subtle resignation of old races who have known a long historical discipline and have conventional forms for their feelings—forms resembling singularly little the feelings themselves. Francie took people at their word […] It would not have occurred to the girl that such things need have been said as a mere garniture. Her lover, whose life had been surrounded with garniture and who therefore might have been expected not to notice it, had a fresh sense of it now […]
1888, Henry James, The Reverberator, Macmillan and Co. - A matching array of plate armour and its accessories
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Frankish*warnijan“to prevent, deny”
- Old Frenchgarnir
- Old Frenchgarneture“accessory for a saddle”
- Anglo-Normangarniture
- Middle Englishgarnetture
- Englishgarniture
From Middle English garnetture, from Anglo-Norman garniture, gerneiture, from Old French garneture (“accessory for a saddle”), from Old French garnir, guarnir, from Frankish *warnijan (“to prevent, deny”).
More words from Middle English, Anglo-Norman, Old French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian украшение, гарнитура
- украшение (ukrašenie)something that garnishes
- гарнитура (garnitura)something that garnishes
French garniture
- garnituresomething that garnishes
German Garnitur
- Garnitursomething that garnishes
Polish garnitur
- garnitursomething that garnishes
Spanish gayadura
- gayadurasomething that garnishes
Turkish garnitür
- garnitürsomething that garnishes
Cite this entry
garniture. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/garniture
“garniture.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/garniture. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “garniture,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/garniture.
Source: garniture on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.