spruce up

verb

spruced up; sprucing up; spruces up

: to make (someone or something) look cleaner, neater, or more attractive

We spruced up the room with a fresh coat of paint.

I need to spruce myself up a bit before we go out to dinner.

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 spruce up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Jared Wright and Scott Laughton have spruced up a bottom six that was already beefier with the addition of Joel Armia but depleted by the departures of Phillip Danault, Warren Foegele and Corey Perry. —Andrew Knoll, Daily News, 18 Apr. 2026

Walmart plans to spruce up 13 stores stretching across Georgia by the end of the year. —Amy Wenk, AJC.com, 17 Apr. 2026

In response, some tech companies have hired design firms like Gensler to spruce up the exteriors, Semafor previously reported. —Rachyl Jones, semafor.com, 16 Apr. 2026

Window boxes and planters are classic choices for sprucing up porches and adding extra pizzazz to front walkways. —Lauren Landers, The Spruce, 15 Apr. 2026

Rhymes for spruce up

• buttercup
• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup