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burnish

burnish is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 3 senses. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.To cause to shine; to make smooth and bright; to polish; specifically, to polish by rubbing with something hard and smooth; as, to burnish brass or paper. The frame of burnished steel, that east a glare From far, and seemed to thaw the freezing air. Dryden. Now the village windows blaze, Burnished by the setting sun. Cunningham. Burnishing machine, a machine for smoothing and polishing by compression, as in making paper collars.
  2. 2.To shine forth; to brighten; to become smooth and glossy, as from swelling or filling out; hence, to grow large. A slender poet must have time to grow, And spread and burnish as his brothers do. Dryden. My thoughts began to burnish, sprout, and swell. Herbert.
  3. 3.The effect of burnishing; gloss; brightness; luster. Crashaw.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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