freshen up

1. 1.

   make brighter and prettier

   “we refurbished the guest wing”

   “My wife wants us to renovate”

   Synonymsrefurbishrenovate

   Broaderregenerate

   Narrowergentrify
2. 2.

   become or make oneself fresh again

   “She freshened up after the tennis game”

   Synonymsfreshenrefreshrefreshen

   Broaderchange

   Narrowerwash up

Questions about freshen up

What does freshen up mean?

freshen up means "make brighter and prettier". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for freshen up?

Close synonyms include refurbish, renovate, freshen, refresh, refreshen. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is freshen up a common word?

freshen up is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.