spruce up
To dress or arrange smartly, elegantly, and neatly; to smarten.
spruce
/spɹuːs/
name 5noun 4verb 3adj 1
Collocations
5ADJ.
alone, beautiful, black, covered, drunk, full, many, nearby
VERB + SPRUCE
carry, didn't, dragged, flowers, house, learned, like, made
SPRUCE + NOUN
beer, birch, boughs, forests, he'd, home, juniper, lieutenant
PREP.
from, in, than, up
ADV.
always, gently, only
Definitions
noun
1
Any of various large coniferous evergreen trees or shrubs from the genus Picea, found in northern temperate and boreal regions; originally and more fully spruce fir.
2
The wood of a spruce.
3
Made of the wood of the spruce.
That spruce table is beautiful!
4
Prussian leather; pruce.
adj
1
Smart, trim, and elegant in appearance; fastidious (said of a person).
Hovv often vvould the Svvaines prepare their Morrice & their May / To haue a ſight of her, vvhen all enamoured vvent their vvay? / The ſprevvſeſt Citie-Lads for her vvould faine the Countrie-aire, / And that their prouder Girles had but adultrate beauties ſvvaire, […]
[A] baker's boy in a white apron and blue jumpers went by carrying a basket of bread on his head; and from the nearby tobacconist's, a spruce young lieutenant dressed in a black uniform emerged lighting a cigarette.
verb
1
To arrange neatly; tidy up.
2
To make oneself spruce (neat and elegant in appearance).
3
To tease.
Thesaurus
Idioms & Phrases
Example Bank
601
That spruce table is beautiful!
Wiktionary02
Hovv often vvould the Svvaines prepare their Morrice & their May / To haue a ſight of her, vvhen all enamoured vvent their vvay? / The ſprevvſeſt Citie-Lads for her vvould faine the Countrie-aire, / A
Wiktionary03
[A] baker's boy in a white apron and blue jumpers went by carrying a basket of bread on his head; and from the nearby tobacconist's, a spruce young lieutenant dressed in a black uniform emerged lighti
Wiktionary04
He had great neatness of person, and he continued to wear his spruce black coat and his bowler hat, always a little too small for him, in a dapper, jaunty manner.
Wiktionary05
Not even at gunpoint will Imogen of the Internet admit she only learned CSS to spruce up her Myspace profile in the 2000s.
Tatoeba · #74545506
Do you like spruce beer?
Tatoeba · #1994361Usage Notes
i Register
In some senses, spruce is marked as obsolete. Watch for register when choosing this word.
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