polish

From Middle English, from Old French poliss-, stem of some of the conjugated forms of polir, from Latin polīre (“to polish, make smooth”).

• (UK) enPR: pŏ'lĭsh, IPA^(key): /ˈpɒlɪʃ/
• (US) enPR: pä'lĭsh, IPA^(key): /ˈpɑlɪʃ/

• Audio (US)

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polish (countable and uncountable, plural polishes)

1. A substance used to polish.

   A good silver polish will remove tarnish easily.

2. Cleanliness; smoothness, shininess.

   The floor was waxed to a high polish.

3. Refinement; cleanliness in performance or presentation.

   The lecturer showed a lot of polish at his last talk.

• (substance): wax
• (smoothness, shininess): finish, sheen, shine, shininess, smoothness
• (cleanliness in performance or presentation): class, elegance, panache, refinement, style

• depolish
• expolish
• repolish

• polissoir

• apple-polish
• French polish
• furniture polish
• glacial polish
• nail polish
• polish remover
• shoe polish
• spit and polish
• stove polish
• varnish polish

polish (third-person singular simple present polishes, present participle polishing, simple past and past participle polished)

1. (transitive) To shine; to make a surface very smooth or shiny by rubbing, cleaning, or grinding.

   He polished up the chrome until it gleamed.

2. (transitive) To refine; remove imperfections from.

   The band has polished its performance since the last concert.

   • 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations

     Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

3. (transitive) To apply shoe polish to shoes.
4. (intransitive) To become smooth, as from friction; to receive a gloss; to take a smooth and glossy surface.

   Steel polishes well.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)

5. (transitive) To refine; to wear off the rudeness, coarseness, or rusticity of; to make elegant and polite.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

• (to make smooth and shiny by rubbing): wax, shine, buff, furbish, burnish, smooth, bone
• (refine): hone, perfect, refine

• polishable
• polished
• polisher
• polishing
• polishment
• polishure
• repolish
• unpolish

• polite

• interpolish
• polish off
• polish up, polish up on

• polish in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• polish in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• polish at OneLook Dictionary Search

• Hislop, philos