freshen up
verb
Simple meaning
To wash or groom oneself to be more attractive.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
frehshuhnuhpSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɹɛʃəˈnʌp
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Become or make oneself fresh again
“She freshened up after the tennis game.”
transitive
To freshen, make fresh, revivify, make new.
intransitive or reflexive
To wash or groom oneself in order to be more attractive.
Make brighter and prettier
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Become or make oneself fresh again
Used this way, freshen up is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.