spruce

¹ American  

[sproos] / sprus /

noun

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

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, sprucest

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

• sprucely adverb
• spruceness noun
• unspruced adjective

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 ( spruce ¹ ), hence fine, smart, etc.

Example Sentences

Nagi says that the conversation motivated her to visit the boy's slum community and she offered to spruce up the locality by decorating the walls with murals.

From BBC

Barr’s challenge is to improve CarMax’s online sales experience and lower the company’s costs to acquire and spruce up used cars for sale.

From The Wall Street Journal

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

The firm also started sprucing up shops with inviting armchairs, new paint and ceramic mugs - all part of a $150,000-per-store "uplift" that is expected to take four years to complete.

From BBC

Both of them kept looking over their shoulders and scanning the horizon, but so far the only things Owen had seen were small clusters of gray rocks and bent dwarf spruce trees.

From Literature