as in to trim
to make neat
hurriedly sprucing up the hotel dining room before the breakfast crowd began showing up
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for spruce (up)
Verb
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To prune overgrown blueberry bushes, trim half of the oldest canes down to the ground to encourage new branches to grow.—
Karen Brewer Grossman,
Southern Living,
26 Oct. 2025 -
Adams’ Exit Narrows the Field After Mayor Eric Adams dropped out of the race, much of his support appeared to transfer to Cuomo, trimming Mamdani’s lead.—
Martha McHardy,
MSNBC Newsweek,
25 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Bessent, who specialized in foreign exchange in a decades-long hedge fund career, organized a $20 billion foreign-exchange swap with Argentina’s central bank earlier this month — an unusual structure that bypassed the US Federal Reserve, which is typically the lead party in such arrangements.—
Daniel Flatley,
Fortune,
27 Oct. 2025
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Alani organized a letter signed by more than 300 former IDS staffers asking for the IU Student Publications Alumni Board to be included in conversations about the IDS's future.—
Cate Charron,
IndyStar,
27 Oct. 2025
Verb
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There, McIlroy was seen posing for photos with several of his trophies arranged on the basalt rocks, paying tribute to a season that many consider his most meaningful of all time.—
Devlina Sarkar,
MSNBC Newsweek,
22 Oct. 2025
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Victoria Goodwin was sentenced to prison in May for arranging the plot with a Florida inmate.—
Ryan Coleman,
Entertainment Weekly,
22 Oct. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Spruce (up).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/spruce%20%28up%29. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
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