burnish

To make (something, such as a surface) bright, shiny, and smooth by, or (by extension) as if by, rubbing; to polish, to shine.

In pottery, a stone is sometimes used to burnish a pot before firing, giving it a smooth, shiny look.

Lyke as the larke, vpon the somers day, / Whan Titan radiant burnisshith his bemis bryght, […]

Of a stag: to remove the velvet (“skin and fine fur”) from (its antlers) by rubbing them against something; to velvet.

His [a hart's] head when it commeth firſt out, hath a ruſſet pyll vpon it, the which is called Veluet,[…]. When his head is growne out to the full bigneſſe, then he rubbeth of that pyll, and that is called fraying of his head. And afterwards he Burniſheth the ſame, and then his head is ſaid to be full ſommed.

The Stagg or Buck burnisheth his head, by rubbing it againſt the trees, Het Hart wrijſt ſijn hooſt tegen de boomen.

To make (someone or something) appear positive and highly respected.

If a Lye, after it is molded, be not ſmooth enough, there is no inſtrumẽt to burniſh it, but an oath; Svvearing giues it cullor, & a bright complexion.

[I]f he is not burnishing thinks he all's Time does lose, / For Sir Jan, Sir Jan, &c. [i.e., no dinner gave a Muse.]

To become bright, glossy, and smooth; to brighten, to gleam, to shine forth.

Hovv you itch Michaell, hovv you burniſh! / VVill not this ſouldiers heat out of your bones yet, / Doe your eyes glovv novv?

So vvhen the VVar has rais'd a Storm, / I've ſeen a Snake in human Form, / All ſtain'd in Infamy and Vice, / Leap from the Dunghill in a trice, / Burniſh and make a gaudy ſhovv, / Become a General, Peer, and Beau, / Till Peace hath made the Sky Serene, / Then ſhrink into it's Hole again.

A shine of something which has been polished; a lustre, a polish.

A shiny layer applied to a surface or other thing.

The making of something bright, shiny, and smooth by, or (by extension) as if by, rubbing; (countable) an instance of this; a burnishing, a polishing, a shining.

With a good burnish, the old table should fetch a higher price.

Of a person's body: to grow large or stout; to fatten, to fill out.

A man Grovveth in heigth and length untill he be one and tvventie yeares of age: then beginneth he to ſpread and burniſh in ſquareneſſe.

We must not all run up in height, like a hop-pole, but also burnish and spread in breadth: then shall we be well proportioned and complete.

Of a thing: to increase in size; to expand, to spread out, to swell.

[Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects] is to paſſe a running examination ouer the vvhole Edifice, according to the properties of a vvell ſhapen Man. As […] vvhether the Fabrique bee of a beautifull Stature, vvhether for the breadth it appeare vvell burniſhed, […] and ſo forth.

My thoughts began to burniſh, ſprout, and ſvvell, / Curling vvith metaphors a plain intention, / Decking the ſenſe, as if it vvere to ſell.