| 释义 |
nounspruːssprus A widespread coniferous tree which has a distinctive conical shape and hanging cones, widely grown for timber, pulp, and Christmas trees. Genus Picea, family Pinaceae: many species Example sentencesExamples - Although most species of spruce prefer moist, well drained soils with moderate to good fertility, they will grow on rather sandy soils if there is a favorable water table throughout the growing season.
- The best trees to plant with wildlife in mind are cherry and mulberry for their fruits, pines and spruces for their seed-bearing cones and deciduous trees that vary in size and density.
- This nest is usually in a spruce or other conifer and may be 4'40 feet up.
- There are few more rewarding experiences than driving a team of huskies through this vast land of mountains, spruce forests and endless silence.
- ‘I wanted my husband to plant a big spruce so that at Christmas I could decorate it with lights,’ she says.
- Before planting either your boxwood or dwarf spruce, select containers that will accommodate these evergreen shrubs up to their mature size.
Origin Late Middle English (denoting Prussia or something originating in Prussia): alteration of obsolete Pruce 'Prussia'. The application to the tree dates from the early 17th century. Prussia was a former kingdom that covered much of modern northeast Germany and Poland. Between the 14th and 17th centuries it was also known in English as both Pruce and Spruce, and these words could also be used to mean ‘Prussian’. Spruce was in time used as the name of a type of fir tree grown in Prussia. It was also used in the phrase spruce leather, a fashionable type of leather imported in the 16th century from Prussia and used especially for jerkins. It is probably from this that the sense ‘neat or smart in dress or appearance’ developed.
Rhymes abstruse, abuse, adduce, Ballets Russes, Belarus, Bruce, burnous, caboose, charlotte russe, conduce, deduce, deuce, diffuse, douce, educe, excuse, goose, induce, introduce, juice, Larousse, loose, luce, misuse, moose, mousse, noose, obtuse, Palouse, produce, profuse, puce, recluse, reduce, Rousse, seduce, sluice, Sousse, traduce, truce, use, vamoose, Zeus adjectivespruːssprus Neat in dress and appearance. Angela was a very spruce and tidy person Example sentencesExamples - The track looked sprucer than it has for a long time, " said one Silverstone old timer.
- A very spruce maid welcomed him and showed him into the Bishop's drawing-room.
- These are the most recently refurbished rooms at the Rubens, so décor is sprucer and fresher than elsewhere in the hotel.
- To turn up at County Hall looking dapper and spruce would have been to strike a false, jarring note of misplaced optimism.
- In outward appearance, he was a cherubically round man, about 45, in a spruce pinstripe suit and a new blue tie.
- The actor looks much too spruce for someone who is living rough.
- Just further down the lane were three tiny cottages which always looked spruce in this quiet backwater and their small gardens were bright with flowers.
- The place has also recently been restored and so is looking quite spruce.
- ‘Why are they doing this work so early in the morning?’ she asked Captain Duro when he appeared on deck looking as spruce and polished as he had on the first day she met him.
Synonyms neat, well groomed, well turned out, well dressed, besuited, smart, trim, dapper, elegant, chic French soigné informal natty, snazzy North American informal spiffy dated as if one had just stepped out of a bandbox archaic trig
verbspruːssprus [with object]spruce someone/something upMake someone or something smarter or tidier. the fund will be used to spruce up historic buildings Example sentencesExamples - Twenty minutes later I saw him looking all spruced up, chirpy and chipper sporting a gold earring in front of me at the Sainsbury check-out.
- The capital, Palermo, is also being spruced up with EU millions.
- A further £200,000 will be spent sprucing up the city's war memorials and a plaque will be put up by the Cenotaph - listing, for the first time, soldiers killed on active duty since the Second World War.
- Spring is here too, traditionally the time when house owners look to spruce up their homes as the days lengthen and the light improves.
- Within just a few weeks, York businesses have raised £150,000 towards the initiative to spruce up the city.
- The money will be used to spruce up the towns, create jobs and improve transport, as well as providing similar help to surrounding villages.
- The council has adopted a 12-month strategy aimed at sprucing up the city's streets.
- The £10m that he will make from the sale will go towards sprucing up his eight other theatres which include the London Palladium and The Adelphi.
- The existing factory buildings have been spruced up to house exhibition, workshop and office spaces.
- There is no dress code, but as always we spruce ourselves up for the occasion in our best suits.
- I've had a haircut to spruce myself up before my sis shows up tomorrow.
- Before the bidding begins, the house will be transformed by a team of designers who will spruce it up and restore some of its 1930s features.
- Replaceable headrest covers were introduced on the company's trains last year as part of a scheme to spruce up the carriages.
- Since taking over two years ago he has attracted more subscribers and spruced up the marketing campaign.
- The company relocated 21 of its smallest stores to bigger outlets in the year and spruced up 135 other shops in a refurbishment programme.
- The 72-year-old's mission to spruce up Warrington Cemetery, where 50,000 people are buried, has been given a £3,000 award from Help the Aged.
- As a result property developers are moving slowly away from the attractive shore area, sprucing up arterial routes better known for their less-than - salubrious surroundings.
- The city centre has been spruced up in recent years, although to look at the grimy exteriors you wouldn't know it.
- A new plan has been put together to clean up road and railway bridges and shopping centres as part of the council's Street Force initiative to spruce up the city.
- Part of the money will be spent on sprucing up areas used by the public, including car parks, picnic sites and paths.
Synonyms smarten up, make smarter, tidy up, make tidy, make neater, neaten up, put in order, clean up informal do up British informal tart up, posh up North American informal gussy up groom oneself, tidy oneself, smarten oneself up, freshen oneself up, preen oneself, primp oneself, prink oneself, pretty oneself, beautify oneself British have a wash and brush-up informal titivate oneself, doll oneself up British informal tart oneself up archaic plume oneself, trig oneself
Derivatives adverbˈspruːsliˈsprusli To our surprise, a sprucely groomed gentleman with spats and a waxed moustache came forward, aged apparently, about forty. Example sentencesExamples - At a glance one would have described them as middle-class and lower middle-class men with their wives and children sprucely dressed in their Sunday best.
- The boys were sprucely dressed in the customary costume of shirt, breeches, stockings and shiny black shoes.
- A small, sprucely dressed man sporting a trimmed billy-goat beard, he was an active and popular local politician.
- He is dressed sprucely, except for his rubber overshoes, evidences of the chill, watery Parisian spring.
nounˈspruːsnəsˈsprusnəs But then Adam is a theatrical impresario, and dresses with all the dapper spruceness of a, well, theatrical impresario.
Origin Late 16th century: perhaps from spruce1 in the obsolete sense 'Prussian', in the phrase spruce (leather) jerkin. verbspruːssprus [no object]British dated, informal 1Engage in pretence or deception, especially by feigning illness. he's no fool; he'd have known if she was sprucing - 1.1with object Deceive.
Derivatives noun British dated, informal
Origin Early 20th century: of unknown origin. nounspro͞ossprus A widespread coniferous tree which has a distinctive conical shape and hanging cones, widely grown for timber, pulp, and Christmas trees. Genus Picea, family Pinaceae: many species Example sentencesExamples - The best trees to plant with wildlife in mind are cherry and mulberry for their fruits, pines and spruces for their seed-bearing cones and deciduous trees that vary in size and density.
- ‘I wanted my husband to plant a big spruce so that at Christmas I could decorate it with lights,’ she says.
- Although most species of spruce prefer moist, well drained soils with moderate to good fertility, they will grow on rather sandy soils if there is a favorable water table throughout the growing season.
- There are few more rewarding experiences than driving a team of huskies through this vast land of mountains, spruce forests and endless silence.
- Before planting either your boxwood or dwarf spruce, select containers that will accommodate these evergreen shrubs up to their mature size.
- This nest is usually in a spruce or other conifer and may be 4'40 feet up.
Origin Late Middle English (denoting Prussia or something originating in Prussia): alteration of obsolete Pruce ‘Prussia’. The application to the tree dates from the early 17th century. adjectivespro͞ossprus Neat in dress and appearance. he looked as spruce as if he were getting married Example sentencesExamples - In outward appearance, he was a cherubically round man, about 45, in a spruce pinstripe suit and a new blue tie.
- A very spruce maid welcomed him and showed him into the Bishop's drawing-room.
- The place has also recently been restored and so is looking quite spruce.
- The track looked sprucer than it has for a long time, " said one Silverstone old timer.
- To turn up at County Hall looking dapper and spruce would have been to strike a false, jarring note of misplaced optimism.
- The actor looks much too spruce for someone who is living rough.
- Just further down the lane were three tiny cottages which always looked spruce in this quiet backwater and their small gardens were bright with flowers.
- These are the most recently refurbished rooms at the Rubens, so décor is sprucer and fresher than elsewhere in the hotel.
- ‘Why are they doing this work so early in the morning?’ she asked Captain Duro when he appeared on deck looking as spruce and polished as he had on the first day she met him.
Synonyms neat, well groomed, well turned out, well dressed, besuited, smart, trim, dapper, elegant, chic
verbspro͞ossprus [with object]spruce someone/something upMake a person or place smarter or tidier. the fund will be used to spruce up historic buildings Example sentencesExamples - Since taking over two years ago he has attracted more subscribers and spruced up the marketing campaign.
- The city centre has been spruced up in recent years, although to look at the grimy exteriors you wouldn't know it.
- The money will be used to spruce up the towns, create jobs and improve transport, as well as providing similar help to surrounding villages.
- The capital, Palermo, is also being spruced up with EU millions.
- The 72-year-old's mission to spruce up Warrington Cemetery, where 50,000 people are buried, has been given a £3,000 award from Help the Aged.
- Replaceable headrest covers were introduced on the company's trains last year as part of a scheme to spruce up the carriages.
- The £10m that he will make from the sale will go towards sprucing up his eight other theatres which include the London Palladium and The Adelphi.
- The existing factory buildings have been spruced up to house exhibition, workshop and office spaces.
- As a result property developers are moving slowly away from the attractive shore area, sprucing up arterial routes better known for their less-than - salubrious surroundings.
- Within just a few weeks, York businesses have raised £150,000 towards the initiative to spruce up the city.
- Before the bidding begins, the house will be transformed by a team of designers who will spruce it up and restore some of its 1930s features.
- A new plan has been put together to clean up road and railway bridges and shopping centres as part of the council's Street Force initiative to spruce up the city.
- The council has adopted a 12-month strategy aimed at sprucing up the city's streets.
- Spring is here too, traditionally the time when house owners look to spruce up their homes as the days lengthen and the light improves.
- A further £200,000 will be spent sprucing up the city's war memorials and a plaque will be put up by the Cenotaph - listing, for the first time, soldiers killed on active duty since the Second World War.
- I've had a haircut to spruce myself up before my sis shows up tomorrow.
- Part of the money will be spent on sprucing up areas used by the public, including car parks, picnic sites and paths.
- The company relocated 21 of its smallest stores to bigger outlets in the year and spruced up 135 other shops in a refurbishment programme.
- Twenty minutes later I saw him looking all spruced up, chirpy and chipper sporting a gold earring in front of me at the Sainsbury check-out.
- There is no dress code, but as always we spruce ourselves up for the occasion in our best suits.
Synonyms smarten up, make smarter, tidy up, make tidy, make neater, neaten up, put in order, clean up groom oneself, tidy oneself, smarten oneself up, freshen oneself up, preen oneself, primp oneself, prink oneself, pretty oneself, beautify oneself
Origin Late 16th century: perhaps from spruce in the obsolete sense ‘Prussian’, in the phrase spruce (leather) jerkin. verbspro͞ossprus [no object]British dated, informal 1Engage in pretense or deception, especially by feigning illness. he's no fool; he'd have known if she was sprucing - 1.1with object Deceive.
Origin Early 20th century: of unknown origin. |