n.
- Any of various coniferous evergreen trees of the genus Picea, having needlelike foliage, drooping cones, and soft wood often used for paper pulp.
- Any of various similar or related trees.
- The wood of any of these trees.
- A grayish green to dark greenish black.
[Short for obsolete Spruce fir, Prussian fir, from Middle English Spruce, Prussia, alteration of Pruce, from Anglo-Norman Pruz, from Medieval Latin Prussia.]
spruce2 (sprūs)
adj., spruc·er, spruc·est.
Neat, trim, and smart in appearance: "a good-looking man; spruce and dapper, and very tidy" (Anthony Trollope).
v., spruced, spruc·ing, spruc·es. v.tr.
To make neat and trim: spruced up the chairs with new slipcovers.
v.intr.
To make oneself neat and smart in appearance: He was sprucing for the school dance.
[Perhaps from obsolete spruce leather, Prussian leather, from Middle English Spruce, Prussia. See spruce1.]
sprucely spruce'ly adv.spruceness spruce'ness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
