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freshen up

phraseB2Not compared — the two pools are counted one word at a time, so a phrase has no score

To freshen up is to wash quickly and tidy yourself. Freshen up before dinner, go and freshen up, freshen up after the journey.

It is also a polite euphemism for going to the lavatory, which is why offering somebody a chance to freshen up is a courtesy with two meanings. Of a room it means a light redecoration.

Definitions of freshen up

  1. 1phrasefreshen upTo wash quickly and tidy yourself.B2

    “We checked into the hotel and went to our room to freshen up before dinner.”

freshen up is a washing.

Where it comes from

Freshen plus up, with cognate forms across the Germanic languages.

From freshen + up. Compare stq apfriskje (“to refresh, freshen up”), West Frisian opfrisje (“to refresh, freshen up”), Dutch opfrissen (“to refresh, freshen up”), German auffrischen (“to refresh, freshen up”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Hair & Grooming

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