Library / English Dictionary

SPRUCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any coniferous tree of the genus Picea

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

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

conifer; coniferous tree (any gymnospermous tree or shrub bearing cones)

Meronyms (substance of "spruce"):

spruce (light soft moderately strong wood of spruce trees; used especially for timbers and millwork)

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

Norway spruce; Picea abies (tall pyramidal spruce native to northern Europe having dark green foliage on spreading branches with pendulous branchlets and long pendulous cones)

Brewer's spruce; Picea breweriana; weeping spruce (medium-sized spruce of California and Oregon having pendulous branches)

Engelmann's spruce; Engelmann spruce; Picea engelmannii (tall spruce of Rocky Mountains and British Columbia with blue-green needles and acutely conic crown; wood used for rough lumber and boxes)

Picea glauca; white spruce (medium-sized spruce of northeastern North America having short blue-green leaves and slender cones)

black spruce; Picea mariana; spruce pine (small spruce of boggy areas of northeastern North America having spreading branches with dense foliage; inferior wood)

Picea obovata; Siberian spruce (tall spruce of northern Europe and Asia; resembles Norway spruce)

Picea sitchensis; Sitka spruce (a large spruce that grows only along the northwestern coast of the United States and Canada; has sharp stiff needles and thin bark; the wood has a high ratio of strength to weight)

oriental spruce; Picea orientalis (evergreen tree of the Caucasus and Asia Minor used as an ornamental having pendulous branchlets)

Colorado blue spruce; Colorado spruce; Picea pungens; silver spruce (tall spruce with blue-green needles and dense conic crown; older trees become columnar with lower branches sweeping downward)

eastern spruce; Picea rubens; red spruce; yellow spruce (medium-sized spruce of eastern North America; chief lumber spruce of the area; source of pulpwood)

Holonyms ("spruce" is a member of...):

genus Picea; Picea (a genus of temperate and Arctic evergreen trees (see spruce))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Light soft moderately strong wood of spruce trees; used especially for timbers and millwork

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

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

wood (the hard fibrous lignified substance under the bark of trees)

Holonyms ("spruce" is a substance of...):

spruce (any coniferous tree of the genus Picea)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners

Example:

a jaunty red hat

Synonyms:

dapper; dashing; jaunty; natty; raffish; rakish; snappy; spiffy; spruce

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

fashionable; stylish (being or in accordance with current social fashions)

Derivation:

spruceness (the state of being neat and smart and trim)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Dress and groom with particular care, as for a special occasion

Example:

He spruced up for the party

Synonyms:

slick up; smarten up; spruce; spruce up

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

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

groom; neaten (care for one's external appearance)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make neat, smart, or trim

Example:

titivate the child

Synonyms:

slick up; smarten up; spiff up; spruce; spruce up; titivate; tittivate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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

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

Sentence frames:

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

Credits

 Context examples: 

Spruces became well-established on more open floodplain sites due to the lower hare population there, but those sites placed the trees at greater risk of drying out during the hot summer months.

(Race across the tundra: White spruce vs. snowshoe hare, National Science Foundation)

So I was sent upstairs to Peggotty to be made spruce; and in the meantime Mr. Murdstone dismounted, and, with his horse's bridle drawn over his arm, walked slowly up and down on the outer side of the sweetbriar fence, while my mother walked slowly up and down on the inner to keep him company.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Farther on he knew he would come to where dead spruce and fir, very small and weazened, bordered the shore of a little lake, the titchin-nichilie, in the tongue of the country, the land of little sticks.

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

Bill had finished his pipe and was helping his companion to spread the bed of fur and blanket upon the spruce boughs which he had laid over the snow before supper.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

With greater numbers of hares feeding on spruce trees, fewer spruce seedlings were able to grow to adulthood.

(Race across the tundra: White spruce vs. snowshoe hare, National Science Foundation)

It paused, head up, close by a clump of spruce trees, and with sight and scent studied the outfit of the watching men.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The habitats and ranges of snowshoe hares and white spruces overlap.

(Race across the tundra: White spruce vs. snowshoe hare, National Science Foundation)

Dark spruce forest frowned on either side the frozen waterway.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

They found that fewer young spruce trees had taken root during periods when snowshoe hares were abundant.

(Race across the tundra: White spruce vs. snowshoe hare, National Science Foundation)

At the fall of darkness they swung the dogs into a cluster of spruce trees on the edge of the waterway and made a camp.

(White Fang, by Jack London)