spruce up

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

The pool is part of a citywide initiative to spruce up landmarks ahead of the Fourth of July. —Michelle Del Rey, USA Today, 15 June 2026

Fan magazine Movieland captured the star sprucing up her living room, seen here for a 1949 feature. —Michelle Duncan, Architectural Digest, 12 June 2026

Dining rooms Dining rooms are often where household dinners or entertaining happens, so spruce up the space for the new season. —Bestreviews, Chicago Tribune, 8 June 2026

Parental controls are being spruced up in these updates, too, likely driven in part by age verification laws being introduced in some countries and US states. —Andrew Cunningham, ArsTechnica, 8 June 2026

Rhymes for spruce up

• buttercup
• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup