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View synonyms for spit and polish
spit and polish
noun
- great care in maintaining smart appearance and crisp efficiency:
The commander was concerned more with spit and polish than with the company's morale.
spit and polish
noun
- informal.punctilious attention to neatness, discipline, etc, esp in the armed forces
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Other Words From
- spit-and-polish [spit, -n-, pol, -ish], adjective
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Idioms and Phrases
Close attention to appearance and order, as in With a little spit and polish this house will sell very quickly . This expression originated in the military, presumably alluding to literally shining up something with the aid of a little saliva. There it also came to mean “too much attention to appearance, and not enough to more important concerns,” as in The commander is so concerned with spit and polish that he overlooks the crew's morale . [Late 1800s]Discover More
Example Sentences
He stood five-eight, and his red and gold Space Service uniform gleamed with spit-and-polish luster.
From Project Gutenberg
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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.
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