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/pˈɑlɪʃ ɔf/ Listen

verb

Polish v. t. (past & past part. polished; pres. part. polishing)

To make smooth and glossy, usually by friction; to burnish; to overspread with luster; as, to polish glass, marble, metals, etc.

Hence, to refine; to wear off the rudeness, coarseness, or rusticity of; to make elegant and polite; as, to polish life or manners.

To polish off, to finish completely, as an adversary. (Slang)

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Etymology of 'Polish off'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Polish off" Quotes from Famous Books

... a better reason for his going dry than that, Juan. He does n't have chance for a drink alongside of that gray-bellied French priest below. Caramba! it takes him to polish off the ...

— Prisoners of Chance - The Story of What Befell Geoffrey Benteen, Borderman, - through His Love for a Lady of France • Randall Parrish

... take long to polish off the permits proper (or improper). By morning all this liquor, imported for "medicinal purposes," is gone. Whoever in Chipewyan is thoughtless enough to get ill during the next twelve months must fall back on the medicine-chest of the English Mission or ...

— The New North • Agnes Deans Cameron

... enough to be Jack Hood—maybe you've heard of me? And I'm young enough to polish off every unlicked cub in these parts. Now, curse you, what d'ye ...

— Bull Hunter • Max Brand

... pleasure in future years again of visiting Kingston, I may find some of the young and soldier-like body whom I have now the pleasure of addressing, again going through "repository" work as stout captains or as weighty majors—(laughter)—here again for a while to polish off any little rust that may have accumulated in their minds. It is certainly a matter of surprise to find what wonders have been accomplished by this school in a short time, and how under the able, energetic, and genial leadership of Col. Hewitt, and of the instructors, to ...

— Memories of Canada and Scotland - Speeches and Verses • John Douglas Sutherland Campbell

... Would I polish off Japan? Would I greet this famous man, Prince or Prelate, Sheik or Shah?— Figaro gi and ...

— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.