furnish
Americanverb (used with object)
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furnishes,
present (3rd person singular)
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furnished,
past participle, past
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furnishing
present participle
noun
verb
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to provide (a house, room, etc) with furniture, carpets, etc
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to equip with what is necessary; fit out
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to give; supply
the records furnished the information required
Synonym Usage
Furnish, appoint, equip all refer to providing something necessary. Furnish emphasizes the idea of providing necessary or customary services or appliances in living quarters: to furnish board; a room meagerly furnished with a bed, desk, and a wooden chair. Appoint, a more formal word now usually used in the past participle appointed, means to furnish completely with all requisites or accessories or in an elegant style: a well-appointed house. Equip means to supply with necessary materials or apparatus for some service, action, or undertaking; it emphasizes preparation: to equip a vessel, a soldier.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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furnishernoun
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overfurnishverb (used with object)
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prefurnishverb (used with object)
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refurnishverb (used with object)
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underfurnishverb (used with object)
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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furnishsimple
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furnishessimple
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have furnishedperfect
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has furnishedperfect
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am furnishingprogressive
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are furnishingprogressive
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is furnishingprogressive
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have been furnishingperfect progressive
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has been furnishingperfect progressive
Past
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furnishedsimple
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had furnishedperfect
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was furnishingprogressive
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were furnishingprogressive
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had been furnishingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of furnish
1400–50; late Middle English furnisshen, from Old French furniss-, long stem of furnir “to accomplish, furnish,” from Germanic; compare Old High German frumjan “to provide”
Explanation
If you provide something needed, you furnish it. You can furnish an answer to a question in an interview, furnish the snacks at a party, or furnish a room by filling it with couches and chairs. Just as furniture fills a room or a building, to furnish is to fill a need. Another word for furnish is "provide." A furnace furnishes heat (try saying that ten times fast). A job furnishes you with an income. Your parents furnish you with a place to live, furniture included.
Vocabulary lists containing furnish
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Athanasius Kircher, a 17th-century scholar, wrote of a machine—a kind of “music-making ark”—that promised to furnish any user with a “complete acquaintance with composing.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
“People buy homes from one company, finance them through another, furnish them through a third and renovate them with someone else,” Bed Bath & Beyond CEO Marcus Lemonis said in a statement.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
And even if brokerage firms furnish consolidated 1099 tax statements in February, corrected versions may be issued later, delaying the accurate completion of returns.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 8, 2026
In 2021, more than a year after I had stopped seeing clients in person in rented offices due to the pandemic, I had the opportunity to furnish and decorate my own home office.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2026
Again, I said that they must furnish evidence if they were going to impose any penalties.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
It also furnishes Ukraine’s military with battlefield intelligence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 25, 2026
It leases units from property owners, furnishes the apartments and then rents the units to tenants and businesses that need long-term housing for their workers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 4, 2025
This non-invasive method furnishes direct, semiquantitative evidence of amyloid deposits in the brain.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 25, 2024
“Not just for souvenir hunters. Serious and rigorous, the book furnishes a gimlet-eyed glimpse of San Francisco’s continuing struggles — and what lies beneath them.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 1, 2024
Recent history furnishes innumerable examples as Europeans expanded to other continents.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
"We usually rent newer houses that are a blank canvas so we can make them our own, although this last season the accommodation was provided furnished by Argyle," she says.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
Mike Shell, chief investment officer of Shell Capital, said that he has seen data furnished by his prime brokers that suggest this latest momentum liquidation is closer to its end than its beginning.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026
The same could be said for the Bible, which for centuries has furnished the English language and the Western mind with phrases, analogies and images.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
At an Objectways studio, AI system trainers film themselves performing household tasks in fake, fully furnished apartment rooms.
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
It was furnished with picnic tables and had taxidermied fish on the walls.
From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart
Americans took copies with them from the original 13 states as the frontier moved westward; these, Mr. Auslin writes, became “an indispensable furnishing and handbook.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
Chloe Haynes , 21, was found dead in her room at The Britannia Adelphi Hotel in September 2022 after she was trapped under the heavy furnishing.
From BBC ● May 7, 2026
But rather than spending tens of thousands furnishing and designing her space herself, she came across emerging interior designer Kiki Tolles through her TikTok algorithm.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 4, 2026
Buyers historically have spent more than renters on furniture: Owners tend to prioritize quality and cohesion, and often invest in furnishing multiple rooms.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2025
Like the other sleeping-cells it had no furnishing but a straw-filled mattress in the corner.
From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin
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.
