polish

Plural: polishes

Noun

• the property of being smooth and shiny
• a highly developed state of perfection; having a flawless or impeccable quality; ; ; --Joseph Conrad
  • "they performed with great polish"
• a preparation used in polishing
• the Slavic language of Poland
• A substance used to polish.
• Cleanliness; smoothness, shininess.
• Refinement; cleanliness in performance or presentation.

Verb

Verb Forms: polished, polishing, polishes

• To make something smooth, shiny, and lustrous by rubbing.
• make (a surface) shine
  • "polish my shoes"
• improve or perfect by pruning or polishing
• bring to a highly developed, finished, or refined state
  • "polish your social manners"
• To shine; to make a surface very smooth or shiny by rubbing, cleaning, or grinding.
• To refine; remove imperfections from.
• To apply shoe polish to shoes.
• To become smooth, as from friction; to receive a gloss; to take a smooth and glossy surface.
• To refine; to wear off the rudeness, coarseness, or rusticity of; to make elegant and polite.

Adjective

• of or relating to Poland or its people or culture
  • "Polish sausage"

Examples

• A good silver polish will remove tarnish easily.
• He needed to polish his Scrabble skills to compete with the masters.
• He polished up the chrome until it gleamed.
• Steel polishes well.
• The band has polished its performance since the last concert.
• The floor was waxed to a high polish.
• The lecturer showed a lot of polish at his last talk.

Synonyms

brush up, burnish, cultivation, culture, down, fine-tune, finish, gloss, glossiness, polish up, refine, refinement, round, round off, shine, smooth, smoothen, bone, buff, class, elegance, furbish, hone, panache, perfect, sheen, shininess, smoothness, style, wax

Related Words

polissoir, polite

Anagrams of polish