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
Kim Velsey, Curbed, 27 Aug. 2025
It has since been refurbished and now features a modern Mexican restaurant called Arandas.
—Liza B. Zimmerman, Forbes.com, 26 Aug. 2025
When Russell refurbished Lauren’s prewar Mercedes SSK, once owned by an Italian count, his team spent 4,000 hours on the project.
—Stayton Bonner, Robb Report, 24 Aug. 2025
Batt said Michigan State has signed a new concession deal with an outside provider, completed new, bigger scoreboards in the football stadium and is refurbishing its luxury boxes, all with an eye on generating more income.
—Eddie Pells, Chicago Tribune, 24 Aug. 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 11 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
refurbish
verb
Share