furbish
verbUK /ˈfɜːbɪʃ/ · US /ˈfɝbɪʃ/
Etymology From Middle English furbisshen, from Old French forbir (stem furbiss-, “to clean, polish”), from Frankish *furbēn (“to clean, polish”).
1
To polish or burnish.
2
To renovate or recondition; to refurbish.
- I do not indeed suppose that anyone can at this time of day effect that which the sense of all good men failed to effect while he lived--I mean the final killing of those rumours; nor is a plain tale likely to persuade those, with whom idle reports, constantly furbished up, of letters seen in France, weigh more than a consistent life.1897, Stanley John Weyman, chapter I, in Shrewsbury:
- Derived terms
- furbisher, furbish up, refurbish