POLISH

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Polish mean? 

• POLISH (noun)
  The noun POLISH has 4 senses:

1. the property of being smooth and shiny

2. a highly developed state of perfection; having a flawless or impeccable quality

3. a preparation used in polishing

4. the Slavic language of Poland

  Familiarity information: POLISH used as a noun is uncommon.

• POLISH (adjective)
  The adjective POLISH has 1 sense:

1. of or relating to Poland or its people or culture

  Familiarity information: POLISH used as an adjective is very rare.

• POLISH (verb)
  The verb POLISH has 3 senses:

1. make (a surface) shine

2. improve or perfect by pruning or polishing

3. bring to a highly developed, finished, or refined state

  Familiarity information: POLISH used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• POLISH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The property of being smooth and shiny

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

burnish; gloss; glossiness; polish

Hypernyms ("polish" is a kind of...):

effulgence; radiance; radiancy; refulgence; refulgency; shine (the quality of being bright and sending out rays of light)

smoothness (a texture without roughness; smooth to the touch)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "polish"):

French polish (the glaze produced by repeated applications of French polish shellac)

glaze (a glossy finish on a fabric)

Derivation:

polish (make (a surface) shine)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A highly developed state of perfection; having a flawless or impeccable quality

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

cultivation; culture; finish; polish; refinement

Context example:

almost an inspiration which gives to all work that finish which is almost art

Hypernyms ("polish" is a kind of...):

flawlessness; ne plus ultra; perfection (the state of being without a flaw or defect)

Derivation:

polish (bring to a highly developed, finished, or refined state)

polish (improve or perfect by pruning or polishing)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A preparation used in polishing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("polish" is a kind of...):

formulation; preparation (a substance prepared according to a formula)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "polish"):

blacking; shoe polish (a substance used to produce a shiny protective surface on footwear)

Simoniz (a brand of car polish)

Derivation:

polish (make (a surface) shine)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The Slavic language of Poland

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("Polish" is a kind of...):

Slavic; Slavic language; Slavonic; Slavonic language (a branch of the Indo-European family of languages)

Derivation:

Polish (of or relating to Poland or its people or culture)

• POLISH (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of or relating to Poland or its people or culture

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

Polish sausage

Pertainym:

Poland (a republic in central Europe; the invasion of Poland by Germany in 1939 started World War II)

Derivation:

Polish (the Slavic language of Poland)

• POLISH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they polish    ... he / she / it polishes   
Past simple: polished   
Past participle: polished   
-ing form: polishing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make (a surface) shine

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

polish; shine; smooth; smoothen

Context example:

polish my shoes

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

beautify; embellish; fancify; prettify (make more beautiful)

"Polish" entails doing...:

rub (move over something with pressure)

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

Simonise; Simonize (polish with wax)

sleek; slick (make slick or smooth)

buff; burnish; furbish (polish and make shiny)

gloss (give a shine or gloss to, usually by rubbing)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

They polish the glass tubes

Derivation:

polish (the property of being smooth and shiny)

polish (a preparation used in polishing)

polisher (a power tool used to buff surfaces)

polishing (the work of making something smooth and shiny by rubbing or waxing it)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Improve or perfect by pruning or polishing

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

down; fine-tune; polish; refine

Context example:

refine one's style of writing

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

ameliorate; amend; better; improve; meliorate (to make better)

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

over-refine; overrefine (refine too much or with excess of subtlety)

civilise; civilize; cultivate; educate; school; train (teach or refine to be discriminative in taste or judgment)

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

polish (a highly developed state of perfection; having a flawless or impeccable quality)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Bring to a highly developed, finished, or refined state

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

brush up; polish; polish up; round; round off

Context example:

polish your social manners

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

hone; perfect (make perfect or complete)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

polish (a highly developed state of perfection; having a flawless or impeccable quality)

 Context examples 

Mr Elliot was rational, discreet, polished, but he was not open.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

All about me was spotless and bright—scoured floor, polished grate, and well-rubbed chairs.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He contemplated the bones, clean-picked and polished, pink with the cell-life in them which had not yet died.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I consider it as one of the first refinements of polished society.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

A powder formulation intended to clean and/or polish the teeth, and which may contain certain additional agents.

(Dentifrice Powder Dosage Form, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

We must make him a polished chip before we have done with him.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Send him to me, and I will soon polish him.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

They only give a little polish.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I was hoping that if the paper on which he wrote was thin, some trace of it might come through upon this polished surface.

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

Was set a maximum limit of 0.2 milligrams of arsenic per kilogram of polished rice.

(Parboiling husked rice reduces arsenic content, SciDev.Net)