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
Nathan Diller, USA TODAY, 26 Apr. 2024
In the rooms, antique station windows have been refurbished as quirky wall art.
—Simon Willis, Travel + Leisure, 25 Apr. 2024
Each of the old 9000s was then stripped down to its core elements and all the parts that still worked were fully refurbished while everything that didn’t was replaced.
—Bryan Hood, Robb Report, 25 Apr. 2024
At the same time, De Meo also is refurbishing a Renault store on the Champs Elysees as other brands pull out from the renowned Paris avenue.
—Albertina Torsoli, Fortune, 22 Apr. 2024
The California park is also working on refurbishing a fan favorite: the Haunted Mansion.
—Liza Esquibias, Peoplemag, 3 Apr. 2024
Many of these were refurbished and sold to customers.
—Sean Evans, Robb Report, 6 Apr. 2024
From there, the shuttle could be refurbished and flown again, theoretically driving down the cost of each mission.
—Jackie Wattles, CNN, 5 Apr. 2024
Mast removed the 1950s belts and rotors, refurbished them and put them back.
—Lydia Depillis, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'refurbish.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near refurbish
Cite this Entry
“Refurbish.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/refurbish. Accessed 1 May. 2024.
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refurbish
verb
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