polish
/ˈpɑ.lɪʃ/ verb C2- To shine; to make a surface very smooth or shiny by rubbing, cleaning, or grinding. · He polished up the chrome until it gleamed.
- To refine; remove imperfections from. · The band has polished its performance since the last concert.
- To apply shoe polish to shoes.
- To become smooth, as from friction; to receive a gloss; to take a smooth and glossy surface. · Steel polishes well.
- To refine; to wear off the rudeness, coarseness, or rusticity of; to make elegant and polite.
He/she/it polishes · Past polished · Past participle polished · -ing form polishing
Verb forms
- Base form
- polish
- He/she/it
- polishes
- Past
- polished
- Past participle
- polished
- -ing form
- polishing
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
This box contained an unctuous substance partly solid, of which it was impossible to discover the color, owing to the reflection of the polished gold, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, which ornamented the box.
The men were dressed in blue, of the same shade as their hats, and wore well-polished boots with a deep roll of blue at the tops.
So they set to work in one of the big yellow rooms of the castle and worked for three days and four nights, hammering and twisting and bending and soldering and polishing and pounding at the legs and body and head of the Tin Woodman, until at last he was straightened out into his old form, and his joints worked as well as ever.
Others polished the blade until all the rust was removed and it glistened like burnished silver.
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