as in elegant
being strikingly neat and trim in style or appearance
a slim, spruce man in a tailor-made business suit
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of spruce
Lizzy Briskin, Bon Appetit Magazine, 1 Dec. 2025
Consider Juni instead a light sprucing of your mood, with pint-sized pep.
—Matthew Korfhage, Wired News, 6 Nov. 2025
The 34-mile road winds through several ecosystems from cove hardwood to northern hardwood to pine oak to spruce fir.
—Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 13 Aug. 2025
Available in various colors, from black to blush pink patent leather, the closed toe pumps offer an adjustable buckle slingback strap and fun geometric side cut-outs that spruce your outfit up.
—Meaghan Kenny, Condé Nast Traveler, 20 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for spruce
Verb
And there is no better brand for sprucing than Breville.
—Lizzy Briskin, Bon Appetit Magazine, 1 Dec. 2025
Consider Juni instead a light sprucing of your mood, with pint-sized pep.
—Matthew Korfhage, Wired News, 6 Nov. 2025
The 34-mile road winds through several ecosystems from cove hardwood to northern hardwood to pine oak to spruce fir.
—Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 13 Aug. 2025
Available in various colors, from black to blush pink patent leather, the closed toe pumps offer an adjustable buckle slingback strap and fun geometric side cut-outs that spruce your outfit up.
—Meaghan Kenny, Condé Nast Traveler, 20 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for spruce
Recent Examples of Synonyms for spruce
Adjective
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What waits behind the greenhouses and garden beds is a sprawling oasis of elegant indoor-outdoor dining with a secret garden appeal that feels worlds away from the chain restaurants nearby.—
Nicole Letts,
Southern Living,
28 Feb. 2026
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Soprano Nicole Car’s initially elegant Elizabeth accumulates both physical and vocal intensity as the opera exposes more and more skulduggery around her.—
Scott Cantrell,
Dallas Morning News,
28 Feb. 2026
Verb
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The scam reportedly tricked Russian drone operators into giving away the location of their Starlink terminals, allowing Ukrainian artillery and drones to target them.—
Simon Shuster,
The Atlantic,
27 Feb. 2026
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Or, in other words, tricking them by holding up a sign.—
Adam Ismail,
The Drive,
26 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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The Revolution Cooking smart toaster sears bagels, bread, waffles and more from edge to edge without drying them out -- crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.—
Tory Johnson,
ABC News,
28 Feb. 2026
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With Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto bringing the entire Japanese market on board as Dodgers fans, the richest and smartest team in baseball has ways of generating millions beyond the boundaries of normal revenue sharing that rival owners never even stopped to consider.—
Tim Cowlishaw,
Dallas Morning News,
28 Feb. 2026
Verb
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The Ducks improved to 14-3 in games that have gone beyond regulation.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
2 Mar. 2026
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The Senate is pushing ahead with a bipartisan bill to improve housing affordability, teeing up a critical week for housing on Capitol Hill and raising major questions about what provisions will be included.—
Zach Halaschak,
The Washington Examiner,
2 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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As the hotel’s social centerpiece, the heated saltwater pool offers a menu of tropical cocktails and savory bites of shrimp ceviche, served in stylish cabanas.—
Kristin Braswell,
Travel + Leisure,
27 Feb. 2026
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Next door at the Locust, James Cook discusses Cafe des Artistes, Ocean Drive’s newest mecca for the young and stylish.—
Miami Herald Archives,
Miami Herald,
27 Feb. 2026
Verb
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The European flax bedding comes embellished with a crocheted seam just above the ruffled edge and looks like it was plucked right out of a Victorian trousseau.—
Yelena Moroz Alpert,
Architectural Digest,
28 Feb. 2026
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Only on the occasional night out would the former publicist embellish her features by blushing her lips in a ruby red hue — sometimes glossy, sometimes matte.—
Kaleigh Werner,
Footwear News,
25 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Chelsea boots might as well be fashionable rain boots, with their sturdy, water-proof design.—
Christina Perrier,
InStyle,
23 Feb. 2026
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Will fluency with the references at fashionable literary salons signpost upper-class membership?—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
23 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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That is, somehow, not all that unfolds in Season 4’s final four episodes, but the real pleasure of this entry is watching all of this unspool in natty succession.—
Kate Erbland,
IndieWire,
26 Feb. 2026
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The College Football Playoff quarterfinals will feature a matchup of multi-time national champions, a game pitting two programs searching for natty No. 1, an SEC rematch and the first meeting between Indiana and Alabama.—
Scott Dochterman,
New York Times,
21 Dec. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Spruce.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/spruce. Accessed 3 Mar. 2026.
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