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Spruce   /sprus/   Listen
noun
Spruce  n.  
1.
(Bot.) Any coniferous tree of the genus Picea, as the Norway spruce (Picea excelsa), and the white and black spruces of America (Picea alba and Picea nigra), besides several others in the far Northwest. See Picea.
2.
The wood or timber of the spruce tree.
3.
Prussia leather; pruce. (Obs.) "Spruce, a sort of leather corruptly so called for Prussia leather."
Douglas spruce (Bot.), a valuable timber tree (Pseudotsuga Douglasii) of Northwestern America.
Essence of spruce, a thick, dark-colored, bitterish, and acidulous liquid made by evaporating a decoction of the young branches of spruce.
Hemlock spruce (Bot.), a graceful coniferous tree (Tsuga Canadensis) of North America. Its timber is valuable, and the bark is largely used in tanning leather.
Spruce beer. A kind of beer which is tinctured or flavored with spruce, either by means of the extract or by decoction.
Spruce grouse. (Zool.) Same as Spruce partridge, below.
Spruce leather. See Spruce, n., 3.
Spruce partridge (Zool.), a handsome American grouse (Dendragapus Canadensis) found in Canada and the Northern United States; called also Canada grouse.



verb
Spruce  v. t.  (past & past part. spruced; pres. part. sprucing)  To dress with affected neatness; to trim; to make spruce; often used with up; as, to spruce up the house for Company.



Spruce  v. i.  To dress one's self with affected neatness; as, to spruce up.



adjective
Spruce  adj.  (compar. sprucer; superl. sprucest)  
1.
Neat, without elegance or dignity; smart; trim; formerly applied to things with a serious meaning; now chiefly applied to persons. "Neat and spruce array."
2.
Sprightly; dashing. (Obs.) "Now, my spruce companions." "He is so spruce that he can never be genteel."
Synonyms: Finical; neat; trim. See Finical.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Spruce" Quotes from Famous Books



... wings, as you may choose to call them, stretching more than twenty feet from tip to tip; every volition of yours extending as perfectly into them as if your spinal cord ran down the centre strip of your boat, and the nerves of your arms tingled as far as the broad blades of your oars,—oars of spruce, balanced, leathered, and ringed under your own special direction. This, in sober earnest, is the nearest approach to flying that man has ever made or perhaps ever will make. As the hawk sails without flapping ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 7, May, 1858 • Various

... late years been introduced'. The teapot and the mug of ale jointly possessed the breakfast table, and meat and pudding smoked on the board every noon. Formerly one might see at church what was the cut of a coat half a century ago, now dress was spruce and modern.[481] As a proof of the spirit of improvement among farmers, Marshall instances the custom in the Midlands of placing their sons as pupils on other farms to widen their experience. 'Their entertainments are as expensive as they ...
— A Short History of English Agriculture • W. H. R. Curtler

... superfine Hopkins, how different from the personage we saw but lately plunging like a maniac at the fire-bell! Could it have been thee, Hopkins? Is it possible that anything so spruce, dignified, almost stately, could have fallen so very low? We fear it is too true, for human nature not unfrequently furnishes instances of tremendous contrast, just as material nature sometimes furnishes the spectacle ...
— Fighting the Flames • R.M. Ballantyne

... have been granted a new lease of life and may be found moored at the wharfs, beached on the marine railways, or anchored in the stream, eagerly awaiting their turn to refit. It is a matter of vital concern that the freight on spruce boards from Bangor to New York has increased to five dollars a thousand feet. Many of these craft belong to grandfatherly skippers who dared not venture past Cape Cod in December, lest the venerable Matilda ...
— Modern American Prose Selections • Various

... hard woods which may be added to the list. Sugar, particularly, is a good-working wood, but maple is more difficult. Spruce, on the other hand, is the strongest and toughest wood, considering its weight, which is but a little ...
— Carpentry for Boys • J. S. Zerbe


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