Adjacent Words

Polishing definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

POL'ISHING, ppr. Making smooth and glossy; refining.
POL'ISHING, n. Smoothness; glossiness; refinement.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the work of making something smooth and shiny by rubbing or waxing it; "the shining of shoes provided a meager living"; "every Sunday he gave his car a good polishing" [syn: shining, polishing]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Polishing Pol"ish*ing, a. & n. from Polish. Polishing iron, an iron burnisher; esp., a small smoothing iron used in laundries. Polishing slate. (a) A gray or yellow slate, found in Bohemia and Auvergne, and used for polishing glass, marble, and metals. (b) A kind of hone or whetstone; hone slate. Polishing snake, a tool used in cleaning lithographic stones. Polishing wheel, a wheel or disk coated with, or composed of, abrading material, for polishing a surface.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Polish Pol"ish, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Polished; p. pr. & vb. n. Polishing.] [F. polir, L. polire. Cf. Polite, -ish] 1. To make smooth and glossy, usually by friction; to burnish; to overspread with luster; as, to polish glass, marble, metals, etc. 2. Hence, to refine; to wear off the rudeness, coarseness, or rusticity of; to make elegant and polite; as, to polish life or manners. --Milton. To polish off, to finish completely, as an adversary. [Slang] --W. H. Russell.