spruce

¹ American  

[sproos] / sprus /

noun

• spruces
  plural

1. any evergreen, coniferous tree of the genus Picea, of the pine family, having short, angular, needle-shaped leaves attached singly around twigs and bearing hanging cones with persistent scales.

2. any of various allied trees, as the Douglas fir and the hemlock spruce.

3. the wood of any such tree.

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adjective

• sprucer,
  comparative
• sprucest
  superlative

1. made from the wood of a spruce tree or trees.

2. containing or abounding in spruce trees.

spruce ² American  

[sproos] / sprus /

adjective

• sprucer,
  comparative
• sprucest
  superlative

1. trim in dress or appearance; neat; smart; dapper.

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verb (used with object)

spruced, sprucing

1. to make spruce or smart (often followed byup ).

   Spruce up the children before the company comes.

verb (used without object)

spruced, sprucing

1. to make oneself spruce (usually followed byup ).

spruce ¹ British  

/ spruːs /

noun

1. any coniferous tree of the N temperate genus Picea, cultivated for timber and for ornament: family Pinaceae. They grow in a pyramidal shape and have needle-like leaves and light-coloured wood See also Norway spruce blue spruce white spruce black spruce

2. the wood of any of these trees

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spruce ² British  

/ spruːs /

adjective

1. neat, smart, and trim

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• spruceness
  noun
• unspruced
  adjective
• sprucely
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• spruces
  plural

Adjectives

• sprucer
  comparative
• sprucest
  superlative

Etymology

Origin of spruce¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, special use of Spruce, Sprus(e), variant of Pruce, Prus(se), from Old French Prusse, Pruisse, from Medieval Latin Prussia Prussia, source of the timber

Origin of spruce²

First recorded in 1580–90; obsolete spruce jerkin originally, jerkin made of spruce leather, i.e., leather imported from Prussia ( see spruce ¹), hence fine, smart, etc.

Explanation

Spruce is a verb that means you pay special attention to your personal appearance, especially your grooming and clothing. If you want to spruce up for a wedding, you'll need to rent a tuxedo and do something with your hair. Spruce can also mean that you're making something else look better. You might spruce up the living room before your girlfriend's visit by vacuuming, throwing away all the trash, and putting away the dishes you left sitting around. Spruce is typically used in combination with the word up: spruce up. Spruce's use as a verb possibly originated from "spruce leather," which was used to make a popular type of jacket back in the 1400s.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

spruce spruces sprucer sprucest spruced sprucing

Hinton puts focus on the psychological impact — detailing how the Greasers spruce themselves up and how the lead character, 14-year-old Ponyboy, begins to wonder what he’s fighting for.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026

Already this year, thousands of white spruce trees in the area around Wisley had browned leaves in early August, a sign they won’t cope with a hotter climate.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

Other houses were given a free lick of paint to spruce them up ahead of the arrival of the heads of state of 32 nations, including US President Donald Trump, the Sozcu newspaper reported.

From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026

One of the night’s standout dishes was the venison tartare, topped with poached egg yolk and spruce tips and served with rye crackers.

From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2026

Windstorms over the years had knocked down pines and spruce trees and many of them were the right diameter to use for making a raft—six or eight inches and straight.

From "The River" by Gary Paulsen

"Previously, it was spruces or cedars, but today, we find endemic species better adapted to the climate," Merdan Arazmedov, a member of Turkmenistan's Nature Protection Society, told AFP.

From Barron's ● Dec. 18, 2025

There’s no escaping the fact the simulated emergency care being given under shade of spruces could be carried out in grim reality in the coming weeks and months.

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2024

At the head of it all, where the grass grows into a forest mixed with pines, spruces, and birch, is a small bar with a "Huuva Hideaway" sign hanging above.

From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2022

Firefighters said the fire was mostly contained to the ground with some torching in spruces.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 7, 2022

It snaked around the Sitka spruces and the hemlocks, the yews and the maples.

From "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer

Mr. Kabelac, who seemed the sprucer, less bashful of the two, spoke right up: "I'd be glad to marry her if Mrs. Stull says it's all right."

From Time Magazine Archive

They rode the sprucer for it; they were in better spirits for it.

From The Surrender of Santiago An Account of the Historic Surrender of Santiago to General Shafter, July 17, 1898 by Frank Norris

In its whole constitution it had not a straight floor, and hardly a straight line; but it had outlasted, and clearly would yet outlast, many a better-trimmed building, many a sprucer public-house.

From Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

Oh, if my hands adhere to cash, My gloves at least are clean, And rarely have the gentry flash In sprucer clothes been seen.

From Paul Clifford — Complete by Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron Lytton

But then the Geshuritish Troop, well-Oath’d, And for the sprucer Face, well-fed, and Cloath’d.

From Anti-Achitophel (1682) Three Verse Replies to Absalom and Achitophel by John Dryden by Harold Whitmore Jones

Thenceforth, while Britain's Glubb Pasha built the British-equipped Arab Legion into Islam's sprucest fighting force, Abdullah ruled the sandy wastes as a Bedouin black-tent state.

From Time Magazine Archive

But Mr. Hugh Wenlock was on deck in the sprucest of his apparel, and was visibly anxious and fidgety, as befitted a man who shortly expected to enter into the bonds of matrimony.

From A Master of Fortune Being Further Adventures of Captain Kettle by Stanley L. Wood

Along thy sprucest bookshelves shine The works thou deemest most divine— The 'Art of Cookery,' and mine, My Murray.

From Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 4 With His Letters and Journals by Thomas Moore

Would any one wish to see these remains tricked out in the sprucest, or even the richest, modern habiliments?

From The Book-Collector A General Survey of the Pursuit and of those who have engaged in it at Home and Abroad from the Earliest Period to the Present Time by William Carew Hazlitt

Some buildings were spruced up as part of a tourism drive launched in the 1990s, which peaked in the years following the landmark 2016 visit by former US President Barack Obama.

From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026

As a sample they point to Penn’s Grand Concourse, which the MTA has spruced up in recent years with its own resources.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026

She moved into his mother’s house and spruced it up with a new fence and fresh coat of paint, the relative said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 8, 2026

By that point, gay marriage had become the law of the land and a new bar using the Stonewall name, now spruced up for tourists, had taken over the space, with a museum next door.

From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2024

Three days later, as the invitation had stated, Duane spruced himself up for what he hoped would be a tasty assortment of treats.

From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el

I like sprucing up my ramen with fresh bok choy, baby corn, spinach and pickled red onions.

From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026

For used cars, dealers sometimes charge “reconditioning” fees even though sprucing up the vehicle is a necessary part of selling it, Baker said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026

The project -- part of the capital city's sprucing up ahead of the nation's 250th anniversary celebrations on July 4 -- will cost about $1.5 million and take roughly three weeks, Trump told reporters Thursday.

From Barron's ● Apr. 25, 2026

While Malik welcomes the top court's observations and directions, she says that along with sprucing up laws, there's an urgent need to ensure their proper implementation.

From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2026

For the rest of the night, Houseman and Stewart labored over the script, adding details, sprucing up dialogue, and building suspense.

From "Spooked!" by Gail Jarrow