POLISHING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does polishing mean? 

• POLISHING (noun)
  The noun POLISHING has 1 sense:

1. the work of making something smooth and shiny by rubbing or waxing it

  Familiarity information: POLISHING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• POLISHING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The work of making something smooth and shiny by rubbing or waxing it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

polishing; shining

Context example:

every Sunday he gave his car a good polishing

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

work (activity directed toward making or doing something)

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

shoeshine (the act of shining shoes)

Derivation:

polish (make (a surface) shine)

 Context examples 

You may also start polishing silver and rinsing crystal for the year-end celebrations.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

It is used with a toothbrush for the purpose of cleaning and polishing the teeth.

(Dentifrice Gel Dosage Form, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

Just half a minute, my young friend, and we'll give you a polishing that shall keep your curls on for the next ten years!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Treatment for the prevention of periodontal diseases or other dental diseases by the cleaning of the teeth in the dental office using the procedures of dental scaling and dental polishing.

(Dental Prophylaxis, NCI Thesaurus)

Three women were got to help; and such scrubbing, such brushing, such washing of paint and beating of carpets, such taking down and putting up of pictures, such polishing of mirrors and lustres, such lighting of fires in bedrooms, such airing of sheets and feather-beds on hearths, I never beheld, either before or since.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

So they set to work in one of the big yellow rooms of the castle and worked for three days and four nights, hammering and twisting and bending and soldering and polishing and pounding at the legs and body and head of the Tin Woodman, until at last he was straightened out into his old form, and his joints worked as well as ever.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

“It's an ingenious thing, ain't it?” he inquired, following the direction of my glance, and polishing the elbow with his arm.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I did, said I, dropping my voice, so that Leah, who was still polishing the panes, could not hear me, and at first I thought it was Pilot: but Pilot cannot laugh; and I am certain I heard a laugh, and a strange one.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Mary did look up, and she did stare at me: the ladle with which she was basting a pair of chickens roasting at the fire, did for some three minutes hang suspended in air; and for the same space of time John's knives also had rest from the polishing process: but Mary, bending again over the roast, said only— Have you, Miss? Well, for sure!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)