spruce
Definitions
-
Felling Red Spruce with a Saw -
WordNet 3.6
- adj spruce marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners "a dapper young man","a jaunty red hat"
- v spruce dress and groom with particular care, as for a special occasion "He spruced up for the party"
- v spruce make neat, smart, or trim "Spruce up your house for Spring","titivate the child"
- n spruce any coniferous tree of the genus Picea
- n spruce light soft moderately strong wood of spruce trees; used especially for timbers and millwork
- ***
Additional illustrations & photos:
Trimming off Branches of Spruce
Hauling Spruce Logs to the Skidway
White Spruce
Black Spruce
Norway Spruce
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
-
Interesting fact: The first commercial chewing gum was sold in 1848 by John B. Curtis, who also made the gum. He called the gum "State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum."
-
- Spruce (Bot) Any coniferous tree of the genus Picea, as the Norway spruce (P. excelsa), and the white and black spruces of America (P. alba and P. nigra), besides several others in the far Northwest. See Picea.
- Spruce Neat, without elegance or dignity; smart; trim; -- formerly applied to things with a serious meaning; now chiefly applied to persons. "Neat and spruce array."
- Spruce Prussia leather; pruce. "Spruce , a sort of leather corruptly so called for Prussia leather."
- Spruce Sprightly; dashing. "Now, my spruce companions.""He is so spruce that he can never be genteel."
- Spruce The wood or timber of the spruce tree.
- v. i Spruce To dress one's self with affected neatness; as, to spruce up.
- v. t Spruce To dress with affected neatness; to trim; to make spruce; -- often used with up; as, to spruce up the house for Company.
- ***
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
-
Interesting fact: Pine, spruce, or other evergreen wood should never be used in barbecues. These woods, when burning or smoking, can add harmful tar and resins to the food. Only hardwoods should be used for smoking and grilling, such as oak, pecan, hickory, maple, cherry, alder, apple, or mesquite, depending on the type of meat being cooked.
-
- n spruce Prussian leather. Compare Pruce.
- spruce Smart in dress and appearance; affecting neatness or dapperness, especially in dress; trim; hence often, with a depreciatory force, dandified; smug.
- spruce Over-fastidious; excessively nice; finical.
- spruce Synonyms Foppish, etc. (see finical), smart, jaunty, nice, dandyish.
- spruce To make spruce; trim or dress so as to present a smart appearance: sometimes followed by up.
- spruce To brown, as the crust of bread, by heating the oven too much.
- spruce To become spruce; assume or affect an air of smartness in dress: often followed by up.
- n spruce A coniferous tree of the genus Picea; a spruce-fir. The species are handsome evergreens of a conical habit, often of great economic worth. Some related trees are also called spruce. See specific names below.
- n spruce P. Engelmanni, the most valuable timber-tree of the central Rocky Mountain region, where it forms extensive forests. Its wood is of a white or pale-yellow color, light and soft, in Colorado affording lumber, fuel, and charcoal. The bark is rich in tannin, which is locally utilized.
- n spruce P. pungens, a rare and local mountain species of the western United States. Also called blue spruce, Colorado blue spruce.
- n spruce An abbreviation of spruce-beer.
- ***
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
-
Interesting fact: The "Spruce Goose" flew on November 2, 1947, for one mile, at a maximum altitude of 70 feet. Built by Howard Hughes, it is the largest aircraft ever built, the 140-ton eight-engine seaplane, made of birch, has a wingspan of 320 feet. It was built as a prototype troop transport. Rejected by the Pentagon, Hughes put the plane into storage, never to be flown again.
-
- adj Spruce sprōōs smart: neat, dapper: over-fastidious, finical
- n Spruce Prussian leather
- v.t Spruce to smarten
- v.i Spruce to become spruce or smart
- n Spruce any tree of the genus Picea of the pine family (Coniferæ), or the wood of such a tree
- ***
Etymology
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
OE. Spruce, or Pruse, Prussia, Prussian. So named because it was first known as a native of Prussia, or because its sprouts were used for making, spruce beer,. Cf. Spruce beer, below, Spruce (a.)
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
O. Fr. Pruce—Late L. Prussia, Ger. Preussen.
Usage
In literature:
The boys watched curiously the gathering of the fir and spruce sprigs.
"The Boy Scouts on the Yukon" by Ralph Victor
His bed was upon spruce-boughs at the edge of the stony beach.
"The Huntress" by Hulbert Footner
It was a terrible country, I tell you: tamarack swamps, and spruce thickets, and windfalls, and all kinds of misery.
"The Boy Scouts Book of Campfire Stories" by Various
If you want something real luxurious you can go into the woods and cut an armful of spruce boughs to strew under you.
"Jim Spurling, Fisherman" by Albert Walter Tolman
It is this clearly defined line which enables the eye to distinguish even the very narrow lines in old pines and spruces.
"Seasoning of Wood" by Joseph B. Wagner
Then the branches of spruce trees seemed to urge her on.
"The Later Cave-Men" by Katharine Elizabeth Dopp
The girl watched him in silence until the plain trail led him to the spruce thicket.
"The Flaming Jewel" by Robert W. Chambers
The pasture was of seventy-five acres extent, Edgar said; but it was much broken by crags and grown up to patches of dark, low spruce.
"When Life Was Young" by C. A. Stephens
The trio remained in sight for some time, and then dropped into the living spruces underneath, and disappeared.
"The Foot-path Way" by Bradford Torrey
So I bin cuttin' spruce up there on the hill.
"Colorado Jim" by George Goodchild
***
In poetry:
While the wine gets cool in yonder pool,
Let's spruce up nice and tidy;
Who knows, old boy,
But we may decoy
The fair but furtive Lyde?
Let's spruce up nice and tidy;
Who knows, old boy,
But we may decoy
The fair but furtive Lyde?
"To Quintus Hirpinus" by Eugene Field
The little hamlet, nestling below
Great hills white with lingering snow,
With its tin-roofed chapel stood
Half hid in the dwarf spruce wood;
Great hills white with lingering snow,
With its tin-roofed chapel stood
Half hid in the dwarf spruce wood;
"The Bay Of Seven Islands" by John Greenleaf Whittier
I sat and waited through evenings long
And scanned the ridge with the spruces yonder;
But darkening mountains made shadows throng,
And you the way did not wander.
And scanned the ridge with the spruces yonder;
But darkening mountains made shadows throng,
And you the way did not wander.
"Synnove's Song" by Bjornstjerne Bjornson
The tree, a tall majestic spruce,
Which had, perhaps for centuries,
Withstood, without a moment's truce,
The wing-ed warfare of the breeze;
A monarch of the solitude,
Which well might grace the noblest wood.
Which had, perhaps for centuries,
Withstood, without a moment's truce,
The wing-ed warfare of the breeze;
A monarch of the solitude,
Which well might grace the noblest wood.
"The Fallen Tree." by Alfred Castner King
Lonely, bent old Peter Nelson with the quaint, uncommon ways,
"Spruced and tidied" when the book of day was shut,
With the dim light in the window, and the friends of better days
Summoned round him by the fiddle in the hut.
"Spruced and tidied" when the book of day was shut,
With the dim light in the window, and the friends of better days
Summoned round him by the fiddle in the hut.
"Peter Nelson's Fiddle" by John O Brien
O teach me to see Death and not to fear,
But rather to take truce!
How often have I seen you at a bier,
And there look fresh and spruce!
You fragrant flowers! then teach me, that my breath
Like yours may sweeten and perfume my death.
But rather to take truce!
How often have I seen you at a bier,
And there look fresh and spruce!
You fragrant flowers! then teach me, that my breath
Like yours may sweeten and perfume my death.
"A Contemplation upon Flowers" by Henry King
In news:
Spruce up the plain walls in your house.
The annual community clean-up offers residents three ways to help spruce up their community.
Due to dry and unseasonably warm weather, the fire crept toward Spruce Creek and grew in size to over 1200 acres.
And on Spruce Street between Mapleview and Fairmount avenues.
Seaboard Street in MB to be spruced up.
Seaboard Street in MB to be spruced up.
Alliance resident Terri Miller discovered this blue spruce tree sharing a stump with a shrub while landscaping around her Florence Avenue home last month.
Hilfiger Brings In Young Talent to Spruce Up Preppy Staples.
Chef David Shea, consultant, former chef at Spruce and Twelve 12.
5 Ways to Spruce Up Your Floors.
Deer diseases, spruce grouse management, and more.
Conservation Plan for Spruce Grouse Published.
Spruce Pine Museum officially opens.
A quilt made in 1909 as a wedding gift was one of the popular displays at Friday's opening of the Spruce Pine Museum.
Smokies biologist surveying spruce-fir moss spider.
***
In science:
An equation with these terms and considering a constant number of predators P (t) ≡ P was used to model the outbreak of the spruce budworm .
Stochastic population dynamics in turbulent fields
Fire behaviour in Black Spruce-lichen woodland: The Porter Lake pro ject.
A review of wildland fire spread modelling, 1990-present 2: Empirical and quasi-empirical models
The Chemical Composition of Needle and Leaf Litter from Scots Pine, Norway Spruce and White Birch in Scandinavian Forest.
Polar Concentration of Elements in Tree Leaves
***