Forms: 46 furbusshe, 47 furbush, (4 forbisch, fourbosh, 5 forbesh, foorbush, 6 furbisshe, 7 forbush), 5 forbysch(yn, 57 f(o)urbyssh(e, 4 furbish. [ad. OF. forbiss- lengthened stem of forbir (= Pr. forbir, It. forbire), ad. OHG. furban in the same sense.]
1. trans. To remove rust from (a weapon, armor, etc.); to brighten by rubbing, polish, burnish. Also with up.
1382. Wyclif, Ezek. xxi. 9. The swerd is whettid and furbishid.
c. 1483. Caxton, Vocab., 16.
A swerde, | |
Whiche me ought to furbysshe. |
c. 1530. Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 327. Squyers and varlettes were furbusshynge & scourynge of theyr maysters harneys.
1647. Ward, The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America, 70. In heaven your swords are furbushed and sharpened, by him that made their metall.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. xii. I furbished up one of the cutlasses.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, XIII. 415.
The brazen flashes dread | |
Of numerous helmets, corslets furbishd bright, | |
And shields refulgent meeting, dulld the eye, | |
And turnd it dark away. |
1852. Hawthorne, Tanglewood Tales, The Golden Fleece (1879), 215. As soon as they could furbish up their helmets and shields, therefore, and gird on their trusty swords, they came thronging to Iolchos, and clambered on board the new galley.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, II. xxi. Old arms duly furbished.
absol. 1624. Quarles, Div. Poems, Job, III. li.
Or if by forbushing he [the potter] take more paine | |
To make it fairer, shall the Pot complaine? |
fig. c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 224. Men shulden not holde al gold þat shyneþ as gold, for many þingis ben fourboshid ful falseli.
1581. J. Bell, Haddons Answ. Osor., 134 b. He hath somewhat furbushed the old rusty Argumentes of other raynebeaten souldiours, with a fresh glaze of raylyng and slaunderous tearmes.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., I. iii. 76. With thy blessings steele my Lances point, That it may enter Mowbrayes waxen Coate, And furbish new the name of John a Gaunt.
1654. Trapp, Comm. Job xxix. 25. He had so fourbished the sword of Justice with the Oyle of Mercy.
2. To brush or clean up (anything faded or soiled); to give a new look to (an object either material or immaterial); to do or get up afresh, renovate, revive. Chiefly with up, occas. over.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xvii. (1617), 304. The soule, which must be fain to be, as it were, new furbished.
1598. E. Gilpin, Skial. (1878), 65.
Theile flowt a man behind his backe, if he | |
Be not trim furbishd and in decencie. |
1629. N. Carpenter, Achitophel, III. (1640), 131. He shewed himselfe ambitious to file and furbish over the staine of his shamefull life.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., V. iv. 397. This infection [Pelagianisme] was to come to this Iland in after-ages, furbished up under a new name.
1687. Dryden, The Hind and the Panther, III. 581.
Their ancient houses, running to decay, | |
Are furbishd up and cemented with clay. |
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. 28. The University Statutes were afterwards corrected, methodized, and furbisht over with excellent Latine.
1715. Rowe, Lady Jane Gray, III. i. They furbish up their Holy Trumpery.
1774. J. Adams, in Fam. Lett. (1876), 5. I might be furbishing up my old reading in Law and History, that I might appear with less indecency before a variety of gentlemen, whose educations, travels, experience, family, fortune, and everything will give them a vast superiority to me, and I fear even to some of my companions.
1837. Southey, Doctor, IV. cxxiii. 228. Some part of the furniture was to be furbished, some to be renewed, and some to be added.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, VIII. iii. What we want is not to furbish up old baronies, but to establish great principles.
† b. intr. for refl. Obs. rare1.
1697. Dennis, Plot & no Plot, I. 12. Go, get you gone and furbish, you little young Dog.
Hence Furbished ppl. a.; Furbishing vbl. sb.; also attrib. and used gerundially with the omission of in. Also Furbish sb., the action of the vb.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, I. iii. (1869), 2. A foorbushed swerd wel grownden.
1463. Mann. & Househ. Exp., 226. My mastyre payd to Robyn the armerere ffor xij. dayis werke in fforbeshynge, iij. s.
1605. Shaks., Macb., I. ii. 32.
But the Norweyan Lord, surueying vantage, | |
With furbusht Armes, and new supplyes of men, | |
Began a fresh assault. |
a. 1640. Ball, Answ. J. Can, I. (1642), 90. A new furbishing over of the same broken staffe.
1714. Steele, Englishman, No. 40, 5 Jan., 264. These, and several others, are lately furbishing up to shine out at some favourable Conjuncture.
1775. S. J. Pratt, Liberal Opinions (1783), II. 159. I will not stay another second in this shop, for all the furbishd up stuff it contains.
1839. Col. Hawker, Diary (1893), II. 171. Had a general furbish of all the gear and stores.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 438, Sophist. To this the arts of fulling and in particular of furbishing attend in a number of minute particulars, and have a variety of names which are thought ridiculous.
1862. Lond. Rev., 30 Aug., 188. The tarnished lace having been subjected to a furbishing process.