She needed to spruce up her image so she bought tons of new clothes and got a great new hairstyle.
The city has to spruce itself up for the Olympics next year.
New idioms dictionary. 2014.
spruce up someone — spruce up (someone/something) to improve the appearance of someone or something. She needed to spruce up her image so she bought tons of new clothes and got a great new hairstyle. The city has to spruce itself up for the Olympics next year … New idioms dictionary
spruce up — (someone/something) to improve the appearance of someone or something. She needed to spruce up her image so she bought tons of new clothes and got a great new hairstyle. The city has to spruce itself up for the Olympics next year … New idioms dictionary
spruce — Ⅰ. spruce [1] ► ADJECTIVE ▪ neat and smart. ► VERB (spruce up) ▪ make smarter. ORIGIN perhaps from SPRUCE(Cf. ↑spruce) in the obsolete sense Prussian , in the phrase spruce leather jerkin. Ⅱ … English terms dictionary
spruce something up — ˌspruce ˈup | ˌspruce sb/sth/yourselfˈup derived to make sb/sth/yourself clean and neat • She spruced up for the interview. • The city is sprucing up its museums and galleries. • I spruced myself up before I went out. Main entry … Useful english dictionary
spruce up — verb 1. make neat, smart, or trim Spruce up your house for Spring titivate the child • Syn: ↑spruce, ↑titivate, ↑tittivate, ↑smarten up, ↑slick up, ↑spiff up … Useful english dictionary
spruce — spruce1 [spru:s] n [U and C] [Date: 1600 1700; Origin: spruce fir spruce , from Spruce Prussia , former European country, now part of Germany (14 17 centuries)] a tree that grows in northern countries and has short leaves shaped like needles… … Dictionary of contemporary English
spruce — spruce1 [ sprus ] noun count spruce or spruce tree a tall tree that has thin sharp leaves that do not fall off in winter and produces hard brown fruits called cones a. uncount the wood of a spruce spruce spruce 2 [ sprus ] verb ,spruce up phrasal … Usage of the words and phrases in modern English
spruce — 1 noun (C, U) a tree that grows in northern countries and has short leaves shaped like needles 2 verb spruce up phrasal verb (I, T) informal to make yourself or something look neater and tidier: I ll just go upstairs and spruce up a bit before… … Longman dictionary of contemporary English
spruce — spruce1 adjective neat and smart. verb (spruce someone/thing up) make a person or place smarter. Derivatives sprucely adverb spruceness noun Origin C16: perh. from spruce2 in the obs. sense Prussian , in the phr. spruce (leather) jerkin. spruce2… … English new terms dictionary
spruce up — phrasal verb [transitive] Word forms spruce up : present tense I/you/we/they spruce up he/she/it spruces up present participle sprucing up past tense spruced up past participle spruced up to improve the appearance of someone or something The town … English dictionary
