furbish
/ˈfɝbɪʃ/verb
furbish is a verb meaning “To polish or burnish” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-U-R-B-I-S-H and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 46 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does furbish mean?
verb
- 1
To polish or burnish.
- 2
To renovate or recondition; to refurbish.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce furbish?
- UK /ˈfɜːbɪʃ/
- US /ˈfɝbɪʃ/
Furbish has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Qwertygiy-furbish.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of furbish
- furbishes present, singular, he/she/it
- furbishing participle, present
- furbished participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is furbish?
Furbish appears about once in every 46 million words in written English, the 209,386th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Furbish in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | aufputzen, aufpolieren, blank polieren, blank wienern , neu ausstatten, instand setzen |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does furbish come from?
From Middle English furbisshen, from Old French forbir (stem furbiss-, “to clean, polish”), from Frankish *furbēn (“to clean, polish”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).