# polish
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English polishen, from Old French poliss-, stem of some of the conjugated forms of polir, from Latin polīre (“to polish, make smooth”), from Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂- (“to drive, strike, thrust”), from the notion of fulling cloth.

### Pronunciation

* (UK) enPR: pŏl'ĭsh, IPA: /ˈpɒl.ɪʃ/
* (US) enPR: pä'lĭsh, IPA: /ˈpɑ.lɪʃ/
* Audio (US):(file)

### Noun

polish (countable and uncountable, plural polishes)
* A substance used to polish.
    A good silver polish will remove tarnish easily.
* Cleanliness; smoothness, shininess.
    The floor was waxed to a high polish.
* Refinement; cleanliness in performance or presentation.
    The lecturer showed a lot of polish at his last talk.

#### Synonyms

* (substance): wax
* (smoothness, shininess): finish, sheen, shine, shininess, smoothness
* (cleanliness in performance or presentation): class, elegance, panache, refinement, style

#### Derived terms

* apple-polish
* depolish
* expolish
* French polish
* furniture polish
* glacial polish
* nail polish
* piano polish
* polish remover
* repolish
* shoe polish
* spit and polish
* stove polish
* varnish polish

#### Related terms

* polissoir

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Verb

polish (third-person singular simple present polishes, present participle polishing, simple past and past participle polished)
* (transitive) To shine; to make a surface very smooth or shiny by rubbing, cleaning, or grinding.
    He polished up the chrome until it gleamed.
* (transitive) To refine; remove imperfections from.
    The band has polished its performance since the last concert.
** 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations‎:Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
* (transitive) To apply shoe polish to shoes.
* (intransitive) To become smooth, as from friction; to receive a gloss; to take a smooth and glossy surface.
    Steel polishes well.
** a. 1626, Francis Bacon, Inquisitions touching the compounding of metals:The other [gold], whether it will polish so well Wherein for the latter [brass] it is probable it will
* (transitive) To refine; to wear off the rudeness, coarseness, or rusticity of; to make elegant and polite.
** 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:Arts that polish Life.

#### Synonyms

* (to make smooth and shiny by rubbing): wax, shine, buff, furbish, burnish, smooth, bone
* (refine): hone, perfect, refine

#### Derived terms

* interpolish
* piano-polish
* polish a turd
* polish off
* polish one's rocket
* polish the pearl
* polish up, polish up on
* polishable
* polished
* polisher
* polishing
* polishment
* polishure
* repolish
* unpolish
* unpolished
* you can't polish shit
* you can't polish a turd

#### Related terms

* polite

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Further reading

* “polish”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “polish”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
* “polish”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

### Anagrams

* Hislop, philos