Spruce
adj, name, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Any of various large coniferous evergreen trees or shrubs from the genus Picea, found in northern temperate and boreal regions; originally and more fully spruce fir. countable, uncountable
- 2 any coniferous tree of the genus Picea wordnet
- 3 The wood of a spruce. uncountable
- 4 light soft moderately strong wood of spruce trees; used especially for timbers and millwork wordnet
- 5 Made of the wood of the spruce. attributive, countable, uncountable
"That spruce table is beautiful!"
Show 1 more definition
- 6 Prussian leather; pruce. countable, obsolete, uncountable
- 1 To arrange neatly; tidy up. usually, with-up
- 2 dress and groom with particular care, as for a special occasion wordnet
- 3 To make oneself spruce (neat and elegant in appearance). ambitransitive, usually, with-up
- 4 make neat, smart, or trim wordnet
- 5 To tease.
- 1 Smart, trim, and elegant in appearance; fastidious (said of a person). comparable
"Hovv often vvould the Svvaines prepare their Morrice & their May / To haue a ſight of her, vvhen all enamoured vvent their vvay? / The ſprevvſeſt Citie-Lads for her vvould faine the Countrie-aire, / And that their prouder Girles had but adultrate beauties ſvvaire, […]"
- 1 marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners wordnet
- 1 Prussia. obsolete
- 2 A surname.
- 3 A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Caledonia Township, Alcona County, Michigan.
- 4 A number of places in the United States:; A township in Roseau County, Minnesota, named for spruce trees there.
- 5 A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Bates County, Missouri.
Show 1 more definition
- 6 A number of places in the United States:; A town and unincorporated community therein, in Oconto County, Wisconsin.
Example
More examples"Not even at gunpoint will Imogen of the Internet admit she only learned CSS to spruce up her Myspace profile in the 2000s."
Etymology
From Middle English Spruce, an alteration of Pruce (“Prussia”), from Medieval Latin, from a Baltic language, probably Old Prussian; for more, see Prussia. Spruce, spruse (1412), and Sprws (1378) were terms for commodities brought to England by Hanseatic merchants (beer, wood, leather). The tree with this name was also believed to have been native to Prussia. The adjective and verb senses ("trim, neat" and "to make trim, neat") are attested from 1594, and originate with spruce leather (1466), which was used to make a popular style of jerkins in the 1400s that was considered smart-looking.
For Prussia, an alteration of Pruce; see that entry and spruce for more.
Related phrases
More for "spruce"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.