refurbish
verb
Did you know?
As seems proper given how English prefixes work, before you could refurbish something you could furbish it. That shorter word was borrowed into Middle English in the 14th century from Anglo-French as furbisshen; it shares a distant relative with the Old High German verb furben, meaning "to polish." In its earliest uses furbish also meant "to polish," but it developed an extended sense of "to renovate" shortly before English speakers created refurbish with the same meaning in the 17th century. These days refurbish is the more common of the two words, although furbish does continue to be used.
Examples of refurbish in a Sentence
Barbara A. Perry, Newsweek, 28 Jan. 2025
The stage is completely refurbished with a wall-sized LED screen, new sound and light systems and special effects fog machines.
—Amanda Rosa, Miami Herald, 28 Jan. 2025
Other elements that could be refurbished include public seating, village furnishings, decorative stop signs, receptacles, planters, bike racks, and landscaping.
—Hank Beckman, Chicago Tribune, 25 Jan. 2025
See, there are even more perks of buying refurbished.
—New Atlas, 21 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for refurbish 
Dictionary Entries Near refurbish
Cite this Entry
“Refurbish.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/refurbish. Accessed 1 Feb. 2025.
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refurbish
verb
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