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
Rhonda Richford, Footwear News, 10 Sep. 2025
Except for the week when the islands shut down to refurbish hiking trails and perhaps get some self-time, there is little discussion of tourist saturation.
—Mattias Goldmann, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025
The school has set up a fundraiser to offset trip expenses and purchase new and refurbished instruments and sheet music.
—Nollyanne Delacruz, Mercury News, 9 Sep. 2025
This really is the key technology to make an upper stage rapidly reusable—NASA's space shuttle orbiters were reusable but required a standing army to refurbish the vehicle between flights.
—Eric Berger, ArsTechnica, 5 Sep. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Refurbish.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/refurbish. Accessed 11 Sep. 2025.
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refurbish
verb
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