decal

English

Etymology

Clipping of decalcomania.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdiː.kæl/, /ˈdɛkəl/
• (US, Central Canada, Australia) IPA^(key): /ˈdiːkæl/, /dɪˈkæl/

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

• (Western Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛkəl/

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

• Rhymes: (US, Central Canada, General Australian) -æl, (Western Canada) -ɛkəl

Noun

decal (plural decals)

1. A design or picture produced in order to be transferred to another surface either permanently or temporarily.
2. (US) A decorative sticker.
   • 1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 5, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 91:

     Decorating each alienation, each species of withdrawal, as cufflink, decal, aimless doodling, there was somehow always the post horn.

   • 1971, John Prine, “Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore”, in John Prine:

     But your flag decal won't get you Into Heaven any more. / They're already overcrowded From your dirty little war.

3. (computer graphics) A texture overlaid on another texture to provide extra details.

Translations

design or picture to be transferred

• Bulgarian: ваденка (vadenka)
• Czech: obtisk (cs) m
• Danish: overføringsbillede n
• French: décalque (fr) m, autocollant (fr) m
• German: Abziehbild (de) n
• Hungarian: matrica (hu)
• Italian: decalcabile m, vetrofania (it) f, calcomania f, decalcomania (it) f
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: daneder (ku)

• Luxembourgish: Abzebild (lb) n
• Serbo-Croatian: preslikač (sh), naljepnica (sh)
• Spanish: calcomanía (es) f, pegatina (es) f
• Swedish: dekal (sv) c, överföringsbild c, dekalkomani (sv) c

Verb

decal (third-person singular simple present decals, present participle (US) decaling or (UK) decalling, simple past and past participle (US) decaled or (UK) decalled)

1. (transitive) To apply decals to.

Translations

to apply decals to

Anagrams

• Cadle, E.D. Cal., cadel, clade, laced