to freshen up
43
3.4
- phrasal verb
- /ˈfrɛʃən ʌp/
- Informal
:
arreglarse
- She decided to freshen up in the bathroom before meeting her friends.
- go freshen up
- just freshen up
- let me freshen up
So I like to get up, freshen up, have a good breakfast.
- So I like to get up, freshen up, have a good breakfast.
- And yeah, I'm just going to freshen up.
- And it was so nice to stop at a rest stop about halfway through and just freshen up.
- I had hair by Arminae and she did such a fabulous job freshening up my hair.
- I showered, I washed my hair freshened up, got this cute fit on very hot got The Cave in hand, this two piece of linen set.
- And I just take a beauty sponge and top that up trying to freshen up those bags.
- They get freshened up and then they they get super preachy with the hiking.
Examples
-
If you need to freshen up, the bathroom's over there.
Fiction book (2000) -
We're going up to the room to freshen up.
-
So I like to get up, freshen up, have a good breakfast.
-
Oh, all right, freshen up, a little water on the face.
-
- Oh, would you ladies like to freshen up?
-
Mind if I freshen up first?
-
I really should freshen up, though.
-
Let me just freshen up.
-
I need to freshen up as soon as possible.
Fiction book (1995) -
Vanessa just went back to her hotel to freshen up and Dan joined me for some lunch.
Synonyms
941
1.0
To clean something with water, often using soap
86
2.0
To wash and make yourself look neat
70
2.7
Make something or yourself smell and feel clean
50
2.8
Make someone or something feel full of energy and less tired
33
3.0
Remove dirt and germs from a person's body by washing
26
4.1
To make a place or person look neat and smart
13
3.8
To make yourself or a place look cleaner and nicer
11
1.0
To wash your hands and face to get clean
1
7.2
Make a person or place look neater and nicer by cleaning and adding small things
1
4.8
Make yourself or a place look neater and more stylish
To make something feel new and alive again
Antonyms
How Refreshed
- Informal
43
3.4
941
1.0
- Informal
13
3.8
- Informal
32
1.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to make something look cleaner or more attractive' is directly compositional from 'freshen' (restore freshness/cleanliness) plus the particle 'up' indicating improvement or intensification. This verb+up pattern is a productive, cross-linguistically familiar construction, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Freshen up likely comes from the simple picture of splashing water on your face, changing clothes, or doing a quick wash to feel fresh again, with up showing a small, quick action; so it means 'to wash, tidy, or clean yourself to feel or appear more refreshed'.