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
Stackcommerce Team (sponsored), PCMAG, 28 Feb. 2025
Again, autobiography surfaces — Hackman, through his two marriages and three offspring, acquired and avidly refurbished an array of houses, notably in California’s Montecito and New Mexico’s Santa Fe.
—Fred Schruers, IndieWire, 27 Feb. 2025
More museum pieces refurbished & tested to send to the front.
—David Faris, Newsweek, 27 Feb. 2025
Dekel-Chen, 36, is an American Israeli who refurbished old buses into mobile tech classrooms for underserved children.
—NBC News, 15 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for refurbish
Cite this Entry
“Refurbish.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/refurbish. Accessed 9 Mar. 2025.
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refurbish
verb
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