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refurbish

UK/ɹiːˈfɜːbɪʃ/US/ɹiˈfɝbɪʃ/
verbC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,258 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: refurbished, refurbishing, refurbishes

To refurbish something is to clean it up and re-equip it. New fittings, fresh paint, everything working again.

It belongs to interiors and to equipment, so a hotel is refurbished and so is a laptop. The important part is that the thing already existed, since refurbishing is renewing rather than building. Electronics use it as a sales category, and a refurbished phone has been repaired and tested rather than made new. The noun is refurbishment, and renovate is the near synonym for buildings.

Definitions of refurbish

  1. 1verbrefurbishTo redecorate and re-equip something so it is like new.C1

    “They refurbished the whole ground floor over the summer.”

Where it comes from

  1. Frankish

    *furbēn — to clean, polish

  2. Middle English

    furbishen

  3. English, today

    refurbish

1605, from re + furbish, from Middle English furbishen, from Middle French forbir (“to clean, polish”), from Frankish furbēn (“to clean, polish”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove, Buildings & Architecture, Repair & Damage

First appears in chapter 5 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

refurbish in the wild

  • The mission was part of an effort by MirCorp to refurbish and privatize the aging Mir space station, which was nearing the end of its operational life.

    Soyuz TM-30

  • The money has been spent to build new and refurbish existing cabins.

    Norwegian Trekking Association

  • The county board, in 2012, announced plans to refurbish the grounds.

    Páirc Tailteann

  • In 1999, construction finished on a project to stabilize and refurbish the bridge, but train service did not resume as expected.

    Cynwyd station (SEPTA)

  • Real estate investment clubs members will often buy properties by pooling investments and then refurbish the property for resale or long-term investment as rentals.

    Real estate investment club

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.