spit and polish

American  

noun

1. great care in maintaining smart appearance and crisp efficiency.

   The commander was concerned more with spit and polish than with the company's morale.

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spit and polish British  

noun

1. informal punctilious attention to neatness, discipline, etc, esp in the armed forces

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spit and polish Idioms  

1. 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]

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Other Word Forms

• spit-and-polish adjective

Example Sentences

The filmmaker David Lowery has opted to update it with his own pixie dust: save what’s good, scuttle the rest, and add plenty of spit and polish for a 21st-century shine.

From New York Times • Apr. 28, 2023

It's a song about resilience in the face of adversity, and Shaver promised he'd be a new man: "I'm gonna spit and polish my old rough-edged self, till I get rid of every single flaw."

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 17, 2014

Needs more spit and polish … Angela Thorne and John Gordon Sinclair in The Ladykillers at the Vaudeville theatre, London.

From The Guardian • Jul. 10, 2013

"Pullman Porter Blues" starts with the mournful work chant of a railway chain gang, followed by the breezy singing of Pullman porters, as they apply spit and polish to a snazzy sleeper car.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 5, 2012

The moment we walked out of the classroom, his cocksure veneer, the spit and polish, would return.

From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson