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
Jordan Blum, Fortune, 4 Oct. 2025
In May 2024, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey agreed to transfer the BMT to the NYCEDC so the city could refurbish the terminal.
—Glenn Taylor, Sourcing Journal, 3 Oct. 2025
The Oxford Street store refurbished its beauty hall and launched Selfridges Unlocked, a membership program that focuses on rewarding customers for their time and money spent at the department store.
—Hikmat Mohammed, Footwear News, 2 Oct. 2025
Mahoney of the Office of Resiliency told The Republic about 18 mobile cooling centers Hobbs' office refurbished and sent to many rural regions, including the Tohono O'odham tribe in southern Arizona.
—Joan Meiners, AZCentral.com, 1 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 9 Oct. 2025.
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refurbish
verb
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