FURNISH

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does furnish mean? 

• FURNISH (verb)
  The verb FURNISH has 2 senses:

1. give something useful or necessary to

2. provide or equip with furniture

  Familiarity information: FURNISH used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FURNISH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they furnish    ... he / she / it furnishes   
Past simple: furnished   
Past participle: furnished   
-ing form: furnishing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Give something useful or necessary to

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

furnish; provide; render; supply

Context example:

We provided the room with an electrical heater

Hypernyms (to "furnish" is one way to...):

give (transfer possession of something concrete or abstract to somebody)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "furnish"):

key (provide with a key)

copper-bottom (provide with a copper bottom)

constitutionalize (provide with a constitution, as of a country)

cornice (furnish with a cornice)

corbel (furnish with a corbel)

coal (supply with coal)

cleat (provide with cleats)

upholster (provide furniture with padding, springs, webbing, and covers)

transistorise; transistorize (equip (an electronic circuit or device) with transistors)

equip; fit; fit out; outfit (provide with (something) usually for a specific purpose)

afford; give; yield (be the cause or source of)

provision; purvey (supply with provisions)

fuel (provide with a combustible substance that provides energy)

curtain (provide with drapery)

tool (furnish with tools)

rafter (provide (a ceiling) with rafters)

bottom (provide with a bottom or a seat)

costume (furnish with costumes; as for a film or play)

computerise; computerize (provide with computers)

bed (furnish with a bed)

berth (provide with a berth)

slat (equip or bar with slats)

furnish (provide or equip with furniture)

brattice (supply with a brattice, to ventilate mines)

bush (provide with a bushing)

tap (furnish with a tap or spout, so as to be able to draw liquid from it)

shelter (provide shelter for)

headquarter (provide with headquarters)

kern (furnish with a kern)

theme (provide with a particular theme or motive)

hat (furnish with a hat)

sanitate (provide with sanitary facilities or appliances)

machicolate (supply with projecting galleries)

border; edge (provide with a border or edge)

retrofit (provide with parts, devices, or equipment not available or in use at the time of the original manufacture)

reflectorise; reflectorize (provide with reflectors, such as chemicals)

top; top out (provide with a top or finish the top (of a structure))

charge (energize a battery by passing a current through it in the direction opposite to discharge)

leverage (provide with leverage)

water (provide with water)

patch (provide with a patch; also used metaphorically)

toggle (provide with a toggle or toggles)

flood; glut; oversupply (supply with an excess of)

fire; fuel (provide with fuel)

pump (supply in great quantities)

pour (supply in large amounts or quantities)

articulate; joint (provide with a joint)

index (provide with an index)

gate (supply with a gate)

extend; offer (make available; provide)

grate (furnish with a grate)

rail (provide with rails)

step (furnish with steps)

fret (provide (a musical instrument) with frets)

rim (furnish with a rim)

stock (supply with fish)

stock (supply with livestock)

ticket (provide with a ticket for passage or admission)

tube (provide with a tube or insert a tube into)

caption (provide with a caption, as of a photograph or a drawing)

buy in; stock; stock up (amass so as to keep for future use or sale or for a particular occasion or use)

stock (provide or furnish with a stock of something)

causeway (provide with a causeway)

signalise; signalize (provide with traffic signals)

offer (make available or accessible, provide or furnish)

innervate (supply nerves to (some organ or body part))

dado (provide with a dado)

terrace; terrasse (provide (a house) with a terrace)

scant; skimp; stint (supply sparingly and with restricted quantities)

fund (provide a fund for the redemption of principal or payment of interest)

calk (provide with calks)

feed (feed into; supply)

date (provide with a dateline; mark with a date)

hydrate (supply water or liquid to in order to maintain a healthy balance)

alphabetize (provide with an alphabet)

canal; canalise; canalize (provide (a city) with a canal)

crenel; crenelate; crenellate (supply with battlements)

glass; glaze (furnish with glass)

interleave (provide (books) with blank leaves)

arm (supply with arms)

ramp (furnish with a ramp)

seat (put a seat on a chair)

seat (provide with seats)

heat (provide with heat)

cloy; surfeit (supply or feed to surfeit)

victual (supply with food)

wive (provide with a wife; marry (someone) to a wife)

hobnail (supply with hobnails)

match (provide funds complementary to)

headline (provide (a newspaper page or a story) with a headline)

subtitle (supply (a movie) with subtitles)

bewhisker; whisker (furnish with whiskers)

partner (provide with a partner)

railroad (supply with railroad lines)

uniform (provide with uniforms)

air-condition; air-cool (equip with an apparatus for controlling the humidity and temperature)

wharf (provide with a wharf)

capitalise; capitalize (supply with capital, as of a business by using a combination of capital used by investors and debt capital provided by lenders)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody with something
Somebody ----s something with something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Provide or equip with furniture

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Context example:

We furnished the house in the Biedermeyer style

Hypernyms (to "furnish" is one way to...):

furnish; provide; render; supply (give something useful or necessary to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "furnish"):

refurnish (furnish with new or different furniture)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

furnishing ((usually plural) the instrumentalities (furniture and appliances and other movable accessories including curtains and rugs) that make a home (or other area) livable)

furniture (furnishings that make a room or other area ready for occupancy)

 Context examples 

A sick chamber may often furnish the worth of volumes.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The year ’87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater or less interest, of which I retain the records.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I’ll furnish you with cloth, needles, and thread,” he added.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I'll furnish my own wardrobe out of that money, and you shall give me nothing but—Well, but what?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Cells in the interstitial tissue of the testis that are believed to furnish the internal secretion of that gland.

(Leydig Cell, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

I took and furnished that house in Soho, to which Hyde was tracked by the police; and engaged as a housekeeper a creature whom I knew well to be silent and unscrupulous.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“I trust,” said the general, with a most satisfied smile, “that it will very speedily be furnished: it waits only for a lady's taste!”

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

I made him a small present, for my lord had furnished me with money on purpose, because he knew their practice of begging from all who go to see them.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Miss Betsey thanked him, and we went into his room, which was furnished as an office, with books, papers, tin boxes, and so forth.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He led the way into his bedroom, which was large and comfortably furnished.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)