refurbish

verb

re·​fur·​bish ri-ˈfər-bish 

refurbished; refurbishing; refurbishes

transitive verb

: to brighten or freshen up : renovate

refurbisher noun

refurbishment

ri-ˈfər-bish-mənt 

noun

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

Recent Examples on the Web

The masterplan includes a $1.5 billion makeover of its retail properties: On the to-do list is refurbishing eight of its 34 malls and building new ones to add 700,000 square meters of gross leasable area (GLA) by 2028 to the current 2.2 million square meters. —Jonathan Burgos, Forbes.com, 6 Aug. 2025

Nearby is the Early Childhood Learning Center, also recently refurbished. —Steve Sadin, Chicago Tribune, 1 Aug. 2025

Based in a sleepy English village, the company started out by refurbishing BMC A-series engines, then moved on to complete Mini restorations. —Tim Pitt, Robb Report, 30 July 2025

Instead of grabbing a device that costs hundreds—and knowing it could get lost, broken, or stolen in a second—consider this $79.99 refurbished Lenovo Chromebook with free shipping (Reg. $284.99). —Stackcommerce Team, PC Magazine, 30 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1611, in the meaning defined above

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Kids Definition

refurbish

verb

re·​fur·​bish ri-ˈfər-bish 

: to brighten or freshen up : renovate

refurbish an old house

refurbishment

-mənt 

noun