spruce2
- trim in dress or appearance; neat; smart; dapper.
- to make spruce or smart (often followed by up): Spruce up the children before the company comes.
- to make oneself spruce (usually followed by up).
Origin of spruce2
spruce-up
- an act of cleaning up, refurbishing, renovating, or the like.
Origin of spruce-up
spruce up
- (adverb) to make (oneself, a person, or thing) smart and neat
spruce1
- 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 woodSee also Norway spruce, blue spruce, white spruce, black spruce
- the wood of any of these trees
Word Origin
spruce2
- neat, smart, and trim
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for spruce up
spruce
n.
"evergreen tree," 1660s, from spruse (adj.) "made of spruce wood" (early 15c.), literally "from Prussia," from Spruce, Sprws (late 14c.), unexplained alterations of Pruce "Prussia," from an Old French form of Prussia. Spruce seems to have been a generic term for commodities brought to England by Hanseatic merchants (beer, board, leather, see spruce (v.)), and the tree was believed to have come from Prussia.
spruce
v.
1590s, from the adjective meaning "to make trim or neat," from spruce leather (mid-15c., see spruce (n.)), which was used to make a popular style of jerkins in the 1400s that was considered smart-looking.
Idioms and Phrases with spruce up
spruce up
Make neat and trim, as in She spruced up the chairs with new cushions. This idiom originated in the late 1500s as simply spruce but had acquired up by 1676.