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
Thomas Coughlin, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
The Russian military appears to be leveraging older Soviet-era tanks, refurbishing them and newer models to make up for the attrition.
—Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 15 Sep. 2025
The console was refurbished in 1993, then replaced during this current renovation.
—Matthew Adams, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 11 Sep. 2025
The company will also refurbish its Fifth Avenue flagship in New York, with a new San Francisco flagship set to open in 2026.
—Rhonda Richford, Footwear News, 10 Sep. 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 18 Sep. 2025.
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refurbish
verb
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