spruce up

present singular third person spruces up · participle present sprucing up · participle past spruced up · past spruced up

1. idiomaticTo dress or arrange smartly, elegantly, and neatly; to smarten.
2. idiomaticTo refresh, revamp; to freshen or improve something, especially its appearance.

   Fresh paint and some new curtains would do a lot to spruce up this dark room.

   2 more examples

   Hu Yaobang was officially rehabilitated on the ninetieth anniversary of his birth in 2005 and his mausoleum in China Youth League City (Gongqingcheng) in Jiangxi province was spruced up.

   2010, Bruce Gilley, “Deng Xiaoping and His Successors (1976 to the present)”, in William A. Joseph, editor, Politics in China: An Introduction, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 114

   Here's an interesting effect of a global pandemic that has forced Americans to stay home for nearly 10 months: with less vacation and dine-out options, folks have more money saved up than usual and, given the virtually endless amount of time spent staring at their own four walls, they seem to be more willing than usual to shell out some extra cash to spruce up their abodes.

   2020 December 3, Anna Rahmanan, “Christmas trees are, indeed, more expensive this year than last”, in Time Out

   Synonyms: spiff up, sprucen up, tart up, titivate