smarten up

phrasal verb

smartened up; smartening up; smartens up

US : to become more intelligent or aware : to become smarter

He'd better smarten up or he'll get fired.

US : to make (someone or something) smarter or more aware

Someone needs to smarten him up before he gets in trouble.

: to make (someone or something) neat and attractive

They smartened themselves up for the party.

They smartened up the room for the party.

Did you know?

titivate, spruce up, smarten up, or spiff up?

Titivate, spruce, smarten, and spiff all mean "to make a person or thing neater or more attractive." Titivate often refers to making small additions or alterations in attire ("titivate the costume with sequins and other accessories"), but it can also be used figuratively (as in "titivating the script for Broadway"). Spruce up is sometimes used for cosmetic changes or renovations that give the appearance of newness ("spruce up the house with new shutters and fresh paint before trying to sell it"). Smarten up and spiff up both mean to improve in appearance often by making more neat or stylish ("the tailor smartened up the suit with minor alterations"; "he needed some time to spiff himself up for the party"). The origins of titivate are uncertain, but it may have been formed from the English words tidy and renovate.

Examples of smarten up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Instead of upgrading all your devices, one of the easiest ways to smarten up at home is to get smart plugs. —

Gabriela Vatu, PCMAG, 5 Apr. 2024 This Decorative Marble Chain Link Figurine will smarten up your home. —

Claire Rutter, Rolling Stone, 21 Feb. 2024 Jump to a Topic: PC and Gaming Deals, Home and Kitchen Deals, TV Deals, Watch and Fitness Tracker Deals, Headphone and Earbud Deals, Smart Home Deals, Speaker Deals Smart Home Deals Want to smarten up your home? —

Matt Jancer, WIRED, 27 Nov. 2023 The two-outlet plug is a great way to smarten up some of your outdoor lighting and is great for setting up a schedule for either spooky or festive holiday lights. —

Antonio G. Di Benedetto, The Verge, 23 Oct. 2023 The chances seem slim that the Big Tech companies racing to smarten up their LLM chatbots will embrace this techno-veganism approach to AI. —

WIRED, 11 Aug. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'smarten up.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.