Decorate new red ship (5)
I believe the answer is:
dress
'decorate' is the definition.
(I know that decorate can be written as dress)
'new red ship' is the wordplay.
'new' indicates an anagram.
'ship' becomes 'SS' (prefix in ship names eg SS Great Britain).
'red' is an anagram of 'dre'.
'dre'+'ss'='DRESS'
(Other definitions for dress that I've seen before include "Do some cover work in theatre" , "(Article of) clothing" , "get into gear" , "Gown" , "Apparel" .)