spruce up

phrasal 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

That includes keychains and other accessories to spruce up their handbags and home decor items to brighten up their living space. —Jaewon Kang, Fortune, 28 Nov. 2025

The versatile handheld unit transforms from a wet-dry vac to a stick vacuum to a mini-brush that can spruce up any sectional. —Nashia Baker, Architectural Digest, 28 Nov. 2025

If Black Friday sales are your excuse to spruce up your kitchen appliance collection, join the club. —Lizzy Briskin, Bon Appetit Magazine, 28 Nov. 2025

But things needed to be spruced up and brought up to code. —Roxana Popescu, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Nov. 2025

Rhymes for spruce up

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