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.

---

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.

---

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

---

spruce ² British  

/ spruːs /

adjective

1. neat, smart, and trim

---

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

How can the Christmas celebration in Colorado go forward without a nice spruce?

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 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

Helped into the apartment by an X Square engineer, the AI-operated Quanta X1 Pro robot uses its cameras to identify areas it could spruce up.

From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026

Whether you’re looking to spruce up weeknight dinners or wow a crowd of guests, be sure to give these embellishments a try.

From Salon ● Jun. 6, 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

On nicer days, pedal the eight-plus-mile Discovery Trail past beach grass, dunes and Sitka spruces.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 27, 2023

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

The elms and chestnuts are long gone, the stately hemlocks and flowery dogwoods are going, and the red spruces, Fraser firs, mountain ashes, and sugar maples may be about to follow.

From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson

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

You look very much sprucer than you did the last time you were at Bourg.

From The Nabob by W. Blaydes

Or he would be denounced as a "sprucer" if he managed to arrive late for his meal and yet, by a trick, to secure a front place in the waiting queue at the canteen.

From Observations of an Orderly Some Glimpses of Life and Work in an English War Hospital by Ward Muir

The Bowdoins, father and son, noted that their old clerk's dress was sprucer.

From Pirate Gold by Frederic Jesup Stimson

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

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

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

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

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

While he has not produced a successful and critically acclaimed new musical in many years, the better-known works in his catalog have been spruced up by innovative directors.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025

One of the most crucial sequences involves the makeover that Glinda tries to give Elphaba as she sings “Popular” in their Shiz University dorm room, which she has spruced up with pink accouterments.

From New York Times ● Nov. 26, 2024

“Got any eggs?” asked Rooster Jim, all spruced up in mostly clean clothes.

From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson

Home sales are so slow owners are sprucing up their properties instead.

From Barron's ● Sep. 6, 2026

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

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

No matter how much sprucing up we did, that warehouse was not pretty.

From "Courage to Soar" by Simone Biles

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---