spruce up

phrasal verb

spruced up; sprucing up; spruces up

: to make (someone or something) look cleaner, neater, or more attractive

We spruced up the room with a fresh coat of paint.

I need to spruce myself up a bit before we go out to dinner.

Did you know?

titivate, spruce up, smarten up, or spiff up?

Titivate, spruce, smarten, and spiff all mean "to make a person or thing neater or more attractive." Titivate often refers to making small additions or alterations in attire ("titivate the costume with sequins and other accessories"), but it can also be used figuratively (as in "titivating the script for Broadway"). Spruce up is sometimes used for cosmetic changes or renovations that give the appearance of newness ("spruce up the house with new shutters and fresh paint before trying to sell it"). Smarten up and spiff up both mean to improve in appearance often by making more neat or stylish ("the tailor smartened up the suit with minor alterations"; "he needed some time to spiff himself up for the party"). The origins of titivate are uncertain, but it may have been formed from the English words tidy and renovate.

Examples of spruce up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

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The arch on the Ohio side was painted in 2023, and this year, the handrails and western catwalk were spruced up. —

Erin Couch, The Enquirer, 16 Dec. 2024 The festival has taken place in Jeddah’s chateau like Ritz Carlton hotel over the past two years, but most guests were happy to be back in Al-Balad, which hosted the festival in its inaugural year, and has been considerably spruced up since. —

Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 5 Dec. 2024 Thanks to its luxuriously soft velvet cover and satisfyingly plump shape, this pillow can easily spruce up a sad couch, chair, or bed. —

Bailey Berg, Architectural Digest, 2 Dec. 2024 Explore, experiment and let your one-of-a-kind essence speak for itself Comments The only thing better than reading your horoscope is keeping up with Venus transits and sprucing up your look! —

Valerie Mesa, People.com, 8 Dec. 2024 See all Example Sentences for spruce up