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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



... whose low limbs dangle the tempting wares, and a stump serves as a chopping-block. Under the shrubbery, where the sun cannot penetrate, are stored home-made firkins full of yellow butter, and great cheeses, and heaps of substantial home-baked bread. Kegs of hard cider and spruce beer and perhaps more potent brews are abroach, and behind the haggling and jesting and bustle you may catch the sound of muskets or the whoop of the Indians from afar. Meanwhile, in the settlements, all manner of industries were stimulated, and a great number ...
— The History of the United States from 1492 to 1910, Volume 1 • Julian Hawthorne

... break bark and make an awful scratching with their claws sometimes; my bare feet were soundless. Up and up I went, slowly, for it was dreadfully rough. They were not on the sofa. I could see plainly through the needles. Then I saw the spruce would have been better, for they were standing in front of the parlour door and Peter had one hand on the knob. His other arm was around my sister Sally. Breathlessly I leaned as far as I could, ...
— Laddie • Gene Stratton Porter

... loft above, and a giant chimney, with a crackling blaze of fire to combat the bleakness of the view through the uncurtained windows—Mirror Lake. It was a failure as a mirror that day, veiled with snow, and the white birches fringing it showed bare and cold among the warm green of spruce ...
— The Wishing Moon • Louise Elizabeth Dutton

... be it spoken, thy horses at your owne proper costs and charges shall kneed vp to the knees all the while thou art here in spruce beere & lubeck licour. Not a dog thou bringst with thee but shall be banketted with rhenish wine and sturgion. On our shoulders we weare no lamb skin or miniuer like these academikes, yet wee can drinke to the confusion of all thy ...
— The Vnfortunate Traveller, or The Life Of Jack Wilton - With An Essay On The Life And Writings Of Thomas Nash By Edmund Gosse • Thomas Nash

... stream, they were not frightened. But when they began to grow tired, and the trail led them into a dark forest, where the sun came through the thick boughs and shone only in patches of light upon the slippery spruce ...
— The Swiss Twins • Lucy Fitch Perkins


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