spruce up

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

spruce up (third-person singular simple present spruces up, present participle sprucing up, simple past and past participle spruced up)

1. (idiomatic) To dress or arrange smartly, elegantly, and neatly; to smarten.
2. (idiomatic) To refresh, revamp; to freshen or improve something, especially its appearance.

   Fresh paint and some new curtains would do a lot to spruce up this dark room.

   • 2010, Bruce Gilley, “Deng Xiaoping and His Successors (1976 to the present)”, in William A. Joseph, editor, Politics in China: An Introduction‎^[1], Oxford University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 114:

     Hu Yaobang was officially rehabilitated on the ninetieth anniversary of his birth in 2005 and his mausoleum in China Youth League City (Gongqingcheng) in Jiangxi province was spruced up.

   • 2020 December 3, Anna Rahmanan, “Christmas trees are, indeed, more expensive this year than last”, in Time Out‎^[2]:

     Here's an interesting effect of a global pandemic that has forced Americans to stay home for nearly 10 months: with less vacation and dine-out options, folks have more money saved up than usual and, given the virtually endless amount of time spent staring at their own four walls, they seem to be more willing than usual to shell out some extra cash to spruce up their abodes.

Synonyms

• spiff up
• sprucen up
• tart up

Translations

to dress smartly, elegantly

• French: bichonner (fr)
• Hungarian: kicsípi magát (hu)
• Italian: agghindare (it), agghindarsi (it), mettersi in ghingheri, abbellire (it), azzimare (it), adornare (it)
• Japanese: しゃれる (shareru)
• Korean: 멋부리다 (meotburida)
• Russian: прихора́шиваться (ru) n or impf (prixorášivatʹsja)
• Spanish: acicalarse (es)

to refresh, revamp; to freshen or improve something, especially its appearance — see also spiff up

• Hungarian: kicsinosít (hu), feldob (hu), feldíszít (hu), kidíszít (hu), puccba vág

Anagrams

• super cup, supercup