Noun use of verb phrase spruce up
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
You probably don’t want to put a new coat of paint on your exterior walls in February, but winter is an excellent time for interior painting and giving your rooms a quick spruce-up.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 5, 2022
The central London building, which had suffered nine direct hits during World War Two, was in need of a spruce-up.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2015
When he’s going under the knife for a spruce-up face-lift, Lee insists that Scott get some face work done as well—in order to look more like the young Liberace.
From Slate ● May 24, 2013
Closed Monday through next Friday for the annual fall spruce-up.
From New York Times ● Sep. 6, 2012
Fresh from a multimillion-dollar spruce-up by Hirsch Bedner this past July, the Four Seasons has rightly reclaimed its crown as the best hotel in the buzzy Orchard Road shopping district.
From Time Magazine Archive
Helped into the apartment by an X Square engineer, the AI-operated Quanta X1 Pro robot uses its cameras to identify areas it could spruce up.
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
Here are seven ways to spruce up your favorite chia seed recipes:
From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2026
Nagi says that the conversation motivated her to visit the boy's slum community and she offered to spruce up the locality by decorating the walls with murals.
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2026
Greg Werkheiser, one of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit, said nothing is wrong with wanting to spruce up federal buildings, but there are proper ways to preserve historic structures, especially those made of granite.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 16, 2025
“How about this? I’ve been at Chuck’s all morning, helping him replace the transmission in his old Plymouth Barracuda. Let me spruce up a bit, and I’ll be back down.”
From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
