Spruce
Contents
English
Noun
Spruce (plural Spruces)- Any of various large coniferous evergreen trees from the genus Picea, found in northern temperate and boreal regions; originally and more fully spruce fir.
- The wood of a spruce.
Adjective
Spruce (comparative sprucer, superlative sprucest)
- (Can we verify(+) this sense?)</span> Made of the wood of the spruce.
- (Can we verify(+) this sense?)</span> Being from a spruce tree.
- (comparable) Smart, trim, and elegant in appearance; fastidious (said of a person).
Verb
Spruce (third-person singular simple present Spruces, present participle sprucing, simple past and past participle spruced)
- (usually with up) to arrange neatly; tidy up
- (usually with up) to make oneself spruce (neat and elegant in appearance)
- to tease
Derived terms
Adverbs for Spruce
jauntily; nattily; unusually; habitually; attractively; smugly; carefully; designedly; unwontedly; remarkably; consciously; admirably; proudly; curiously; noticeably; conspicuously.
Thesaurus
anal, bandbox, bowdlerized, braw, chic, classy, clean up, cleaned, cleaned up, cleansed, clothes-conscious, cosmopolitan, dapper, dashing, dinky, doggy, dressed to advantage, dressed to kill, dressed up, elegant, en grande tenue, endimanche, expurgated, exquisite, genteel, gussied up, in full dress, in full feather, in high feather, in tails, jaunty, modish, natty, neat, nifty, nobby, posh, primp, purged, purified, recherche, refined, reformed, ritzy, sassy, sharp, shipshape, sleek, slick, slicked up, smart, smarten up, smug, snazzy, snug, soigne, soignee, sophisticated, spiffy, spruce up, straighten out, straighten up, style-conscious, stylish, swank, swanky, swell, tidy, tidy up, tight, titivate, tricksy, trig, trim, well turned-out, well-cared-for, well-dressed, well-groomed
Etymology
From Middle English, an alteration of Pruce (“Prussia”). Spruce, spruse (1412), and Sprws (1378) were terms for commodities brought to England by Hanseatic merchants (beer, wood, leather). The tree with this name was also believed to have been native to Prussia. The adjective and verb senses ("trim, neat" and "to make trim, neat") are attested from 1594, and originate with spruce leather (1466), which was used to make a popular style of jerkins in the 1400s that was considered smart-looking.
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -uːs
Translations
Noun
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See also
15px Spruce on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Adjective
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References
- “Spruce” in the Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper, 2001
