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
Miami Herald, 18 Oct. 2025
Costumes, props, and set pieces have since been used to refurbish the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, MA.
—Joe Otterson, Variety, 14 Oct. 2025
This donation is the foundation’s biggest yet to HBCUs in Georgia, following such previous gifts as $10 million to Spelman College for an innovation lab and $6 million to refurbish athletic fields at Clark Atlanta, Albany State, Miles College and Savannah State.
—Fortune, 13 Oct. 2025
There have also been a few exciting hospitality additions to the region in the past year, including a few new or recently refurbished hotels.
—Lydia Mansel, Travel + Leisure, 11 Oct. 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 30 Oct. 2025.
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refurbish
verb
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