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
Elizabeth Stamp, Architectural Digest, 29 Apr. 2025
In short, it’s heavily used by companies who make cars that are never end-of-life scrapped, but tend to be refreshed or refurbished and sent back into collections, according to Donkervoort managing director Denis Donkervoort.
—Michael Taylor, Forbes.com, 22 Apr. 2025
There are refurbished Polaroid cameras, but also refurbished internals with new, super cute exteriors based on collaborations with brands like Peanuts, Hello Kitty, and Barbie.
—Simon Hill, Wired News, 22 Apr. 2025
This 2017 13″ Apple MacBook Air is quality refurbished and marked down to $199.97 (reg.
—Stackcommerce Team (sponsored), PC Magazine, 13 Apr. 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 13 May. 2025.
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refurbish
verb
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