burnish
[bur-nish]
- to polish (a surface) by friction.
- to make smooth and bright.
- Engraving. to flatten and enlarge the dots of (a halftone) by rubbing with a tool.
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- gloss; brightness; luster: the burnish of brass andirons.
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Origin of burnish
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for burnished
Contemporary Examples
As a kid, you'd admired pictures of knights in burnished suits of armor.
Whatever You Do Someone Will Die. A Short Story About Impossible Choices in IraqNathan Bradley Bethea
August 31, 2014
We can never know how much of this was innate in him, or how much of was shaped and burnished in a dark, solitary cell.
There was a once-grand dining room with mirrored walls and burnished chandeliers.
Welcome to Woolwich, Where English Terrorists Say Sorry While They MurderPeter Pomerantsev
May 23, 2013
But if Reagan burnished the anti-intellectual brand, Bush has now wrecked it.
Historical Examples
The floor was scrubbed to whiteness, the very stove was burnished.
Way of the LawlessMax Brand
The reins were of silk, and the chariot shone with burnished gold.
ImogenWilliam Godwin
The moonlight caught her grey hair and burnished it to an aureole of silver.
Jan and Her JobL. Allen Harker
From behind the hills peeped the edge of the moon—a sickle of burnished copper.
The Sea-HawkRaphael Sabatini
Her hair streaming on her shoulders glinted like burnished gold.
Tales of UnrestJoseph Conrad
burnish
- to make or become shiny or smooth by friction; polish
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- a shiny finish; lustre
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Word Origin
C14 burnischen, from Old French brunir to make brown, from brun brown
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for burnished
burnish
v.
early 14c., from Old French burniss- present participle stem of burnir, metathesis of brunir "to shine, gleam, sparkle" (trans.), "to polish, make sparkle, make bright, shine," from brun "brown; polished," from a Germanic source (cf. Old High German brun, Old Norse brunn "bright, polished; brown;" see brown (adj.)). The connection to "brown" might be explained if the original objects in mind were wooden ones. Related: Burnished; burnishing.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper