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spruce

[sproos]

noun

any evergreen, coniferous tree of the genus Picea, of the pine family, having short, angular, needle-shaped leaves attached singly around twigs and bearing hanging cones with persistent scales.

any of various allied trees, as the Douglas fir and the hemlock spruce.

the wood of any such tree.

adjective

made from the wood of a spruce tree or trees.

containing or abounding in spruce trees.

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Spruce is always a great word to know.

So is lollapalooza. Does it mean:

the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.

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Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English, special use of Spruce, sandhi variant of Pruce < Old French Pruce < Medieval Latin Prussia Prussia, whence the timber came

Example Sentences

Reno has found the money to spruce up parts of downtown and has turned its river into a white-water canoeing course.

The park's taiga features coniferous forests, primarily white and black spruce trees, with some birch shrubs.

These beetles are now attacking spruce trees since they have run out of lodgepole pine trees to attack.

EXPAND

Reno has found the money to spruce up parts of downtown and has turned its river into a white-water canoeing course.

The park's taiga features coniferous forests, primarily white and black spruce trees, with some birch shrubs.

These beetles are now attacking spruce trees since they have run out of lodgepole pine trees to attack.

Now he was a hardscrabbler stuck in a wind-whipped corner of the world between the blue spruce forest and the sea.

To spruce them up for the holidays, set the topiary tree in an attractive container.

The companies are trying to spruce up the all-in-one desktops by offering additional options such as touchscreens.

But the mere fact of its creation also points to an industry trying to spruce up its image.

Spruce forest, swamps, and aspen and willow thickets.

The fir deck is painted spruce gray to complement the periwinkle stucco walls screening the hot tub.

The site is effectively bilingual, thanks to machine translations, and volunteer editors spruce up the translations afterward.

It lacks the money to overhaul its armed forces or spruce up its civil service.

The harsh taiga weather creates highly stunted forests of black spruce.

The party has made an effort to spruce up its image, cutting the average age of its candidates by ten years.

Breeding: breeds in boreal spruce-fir forests, preferably near water and especially in black spruce bogs.

All along the main road they try to catch his eye and beg him for money to spruce up their shops.

Spruce up the inside of your locker this year with a homemade magnet.

There are plans to spruce up local heritage sites and expand the airport.

Non-native insects such as the bark beetle can infest trees such as spruce.

Italy's loss-making railway is selling or outsourcing troublesome operations to spruce itself up for privatisation.

It is entirely nocturnal, spending the day concealed in dense spruce or a hollow tree.

Its newish management is trying to cut costs and spruce up its business at home.

Chinese fir grows in the north, with spruce at the highest elevations.

Warmer temperatures fueled a beetle epidemic that leveled the region's spruce forests in a decade.

The building was thronged with ladies in light dresses and spruce young men in sailor costumes.

Faced with the need to spruce up and plug in to new technologies.

Spruce grouse are generally found singly or in small family groups.

They reported that it might reduce cold or stress tolerance in some tree species, including red spruce and sugar maple.

For three or four months, many cuttings six to eight inches long have been dropping from our mature spruce trees.

Most parts they could make themselves from spruce lumber they had ordered cut up into pieces of roughly the right length and.

Florey describes her own efforts to spruce up her penmanship, even going so far as to use the services of a handwriting coach.

Some even scoff at the store's efforts to spruce up its image.

Small clusters of black and white spruce with alder, willow, and dwarf birch are supported in the driest soil areas.

The solid spruce top helps the guitar achieve a depth of tone that belies its slight dimensions.

Some visitors spend weeks seeking more remote and even more pristine sanctuaries islanded with towering pines and spruce.

The three spruce boughs at the entrance are stacked on top of a loaded sled.

The dominant and likely eldest cub climbed a spruce tree, where it was tranquilized with a dart.

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged

adjective

trim in dress or appearance; neat; smart; dapper.

verb (used with object)

to make spruce or smart (often followed by up): Spruce up the children before the company comes.

verb (used without object)

to make oneself spruce (usually followed by up).

Origin:
1580–90; obsolete spruce jerkin orig., jerkin made of spruce leather, i.e., leather imported from Prussia (see spruce¹), hence fine, smart, etc.

Related forms

spruce·ly, adverb

spruce·ness, noun

un·spruced, adjective

Link To spruce

Collins

World English Dictionary

spruce¹ (spruːs)

—n
1.	Norway spruce blue spruce white spruce See also black spruce any coniferous tree of the N temperate genus Picea, cultivated for timber and for ornament: family Pinaceae. They grow in a pyramidal shape and have needle-like leaves and light-coloured wood
2.	the wood of any of these trees

[C17: short for Spruce fir, from C14 Spruce Prussia, changed from Pruce, via Old French from Latin Prussia]

spruce² (spruːs)

—*adj*
	neat, smart, and trim

[C16: perhaps from Spruce leather a fashionable leather imported from Prussia; see spruce¹]

'sprucely²

—*adv*

'spruceness²

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

spruce

"evergreen tree," 1660s, from spruse (adj.) "made of spruce wood" (early 15c.), lit. "from Prussia," from Spruce, Sprws (late 14c.), unexplained alterations of Pruce "Prussia," from O.Fr. Spruce seems to have been a generic term for commodities brought to England by Hanseatic merchants (beer, board,

EXPAND

leather, see spruce (v.)), and the tree was believed to have come from Prussia.

spruce

1594, from the adj. meaning "to make trim or neat," from spruce leather (1466, see spruce (n.)), which was used to make a popular style of jerkins in the 1400s that was considered smart-looking.

COLLAPSE

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Matching Quote

"Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise,
Three-piled hyperboles, spruce affectation,
Figures pedantical—these summer flies
Have blown me full of maggot ostentation.
I do forswear them, and I here protest,
By this white glove (How white the hand, God knows!),
Henceforth my wooing mind shall be expressed
In russet yeas and honest kersey noes."

-Shakespeare

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