The AI-powered English dictionary
countable and uncountable, plural spruces or spruce
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. examples
(uncountable) The wood of a spruce. examples
(used attributively) Made of the wood of the spruce. examples
(obsolete) Prussian leather; pruce.
comparative sprucer, superlative sprucest
(comparable) Smart, trim, and elegant in appearance; fastidious (said of a person). quotations examples
... a baker's boy in a white apron and blue jumpers went by carrying a basket of bread on his head; and from the nearby tobacconist's, a spruce young lieutenant dressed in a black uniform emerged lighting a cigarette.
1916, Henry Beston, A Volunteer Poilu
He had great neatness of person, and he continued to wear his spruce black coat and his bowler hat, always a little too small for him, in a dapper, jaunty manner.
1919, William Somerset Maugham, “chapter 31”, in The Moon and Sixpence
A spruce young lieutenant came over, saluted and clambered into the back of our jeep, and we were off.
1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth
The two clean rooms, where chips are made, are sprucer than a hospital theatre.
2012 October 13, “Plessey returns: Chips with everything”, in The Economist
third-person singular simple present spruces, present participle sprucing, simple past and past participle spruced
(usually with up) To arrange neatly; tidy up. examples
(transitive, intransitive, usually with up) To make oneself spruce (neat and elegant in appearance). examples
To tease. examples