freshen

Verb

freshen (third-person singular simple present freshens, present participle freshening, simple past and past participle freshened)

1. (intransitive) To be refreshed.
   • Ah, how my spirit freshens, as I taste
     That life-restoring breeze!1799, Samuel Jackson Pratt, Gleanings in England, London: T.N. Longman and O. Rees, Volume 4, Letter 3, p. 39
   • He descended and came to a small basin of sea enclosed by the cliffs. Troy’s nature freshened within him; he thought he would rest and bathe here before going farther.1874, Thomas Hardy, “Adventures by the Shore”, in Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 206
2. (intransitive) To become cool.
   • They breed, says M. Deshayes, in the heats of autumn, and during the freshening air of winter, at St. Domingo …1793, uncredited translator, The Natural History of Birds by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, London: A. Strahan and T. Cadell, Volume 4, “The Titiri, or Pipiri,” p. 468
   • We set out at once, swinging along at a good gait in the freshening afternoon, walking now the track, now the road which skirted it [...]1927, Frederick Philip Grove, A Search for America, Book 4, Chapter 2
3. (intransitive) To become not salty, to lose its salinity. (of water)
   • He coasted along the American Continent from the 60th degree of northern latitude, till he fell in with the Gulph of St. Lawrence, which he continued to navigate till he perceived the water to freshen;1785, John Rickman, Journal of Captain Cook’s Last Voyage, to the Pacific Ocean, London: E. Newbery, Introduction, pp. xxx-xxxi
   • They [...] drank from fresh-water lakes formed where old salt ice had freshened and melted [...]1949, Jim Kjelgaard, chapter 1, in Kalak of the Ice, New York: Holiday House
4. (intransitive) To become stronger.
   • wind force three, freshening from the southwest
   • [...] the wind freshen’d, and carryed our Maintop-mast by the board; in which disaster, the man that was lower-most, and least in danger, fell over-board, and was drowned;1674, James Janeway, “Remarkable Sea Deliverances”, in Mr. James Janeway’s Legacy to His Friends, London: Dorman Newman, page 53
5. (intransitive, transitive) To begin or resume giving milk, especially after calving; to cause to resume giving milk.
   • For Sale—Three registered holstein cows. Due to freshen the first of Jan. February and March. Prices that will sell. Age three and five years. Eugune Gibson, Smyrna.1919 January, in The Chenango County Farm Bureau News, volume 5, number 1, page 7
   • The cow freshened the week before Christmas. The calf was a heifer and there was rejoicing on Baxter’s Island.1938, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, chapter 26, in The Yearling, New York: Grosset and Dunlap, page 329
6. (transitive) To refresh; to revive; to renew.
   • … the good Druid went to seeke out some hearbs by the bank sides, which he knew were good to be applyed unto my wounds, and which would a little freshen and invigorate my spirits;1657, John Davies (translator), Astrea by Honoré d'Urfé, London: H. Moseley et al., Volume 2, Part 3, Book 1, pp. 122-123
   • I’ve been pegging away at mathematics till my head is in a muddle, and I’m going to freshen my wits by a brisk turn.1868, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, “A Telegram”, in Little Women: […], 1st part, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1869, →OCLC, page 231
7. (transitive) To make cool.
   • [...] Natal, the glorious green country on the coast, lush, forested, watered, warm in the bitterest winter, in the summer freshened by breezes off the sea or the high mountains that bounded it inland.1973, Jan Morris, chapter 3, in Heaven’s Command: An Imperial Progress, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, page 60
8. (transitive) To make green (vegetation that has become dry).
   • [The animals] were not valuable enough to be worth the trouble of saving until rain came to fill the holes and freshen the pastures.1915, Edward Sorenson, On the Wallaby, Sydney: The Catholic Press, Chapter 11
9. (transitive) To remove or cover unpleasant qualities such as staleness, bad odour or taste (in air, breath, water, etc.).
   • Mrs. Meyrick’s house was not noisy: the front parlor looked on the river, and the back on gardens, so that though she was reading aloud to her daughters, the window could be left open to freshen the air of the small double room where a lamp and two candles were burning.1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XVIII, in Daniel Deronda, volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book II (Meeting Streams), page 356
   • [...] from the earliest time that he could remember, there had lain pleasantly in the end of his nose the various scents of mint—used to freshen the water in the ewers—or of basil, camomile, fennel, hysop and lavender—which he had been taught to strew on the rushy floors [...]1958, T. H. White, chapter 20, in The Once and Future King, New York: Berkley, page 179
10. (transitive) To touch up (makeup); to give (a body part, especially the face) a quick wash.
    • It was after seven, she was freshening her lipstick and perking up her appearance [...]1958, Truman Capote, chapter 8, in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Penguin, published 1961, page 56
    • [...] I knew that their laughter was real and that their lives were cheerful comedies, interrupted only by costume changes and freshening of make-up.1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 35, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Random House, page 266
11. (transitive) To touch up the paint on (something).
    • I remember feeling disappointed [...] because the great sign of a trumpeter designed by Rooke, the Pre-Raphaelite artist, had been freshened by some inferior hand.1922, W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, chapter I, in The Trembling of the Veil, London: Privately printed for subscribers only by T[homas] Werner Laurie, Ltd., →OCLC, book I (Four Years 1887–1891), pages 3–4
    • In staging the school’s Christmas play the whole town helped or meddled: older men repaired the platform, assembled the crib; young ones fashioned new innkeepers and freshened the masks with paint.1997, Toni Morrison, Paradise, New York: Knopf, published 1998, page 185
12. (transitive) To give redness to (the face or cheeks of a person with light skin).
    • It was a breezy sunny day; the air freshened the girl's cheeks, and gracefully dishevelled their ringlets: […]1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Mr. Donne’s Exodus”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 107
    • The wind had freshened his warm complexion as it freshens the glow of a brand.1872 September – 1873 July, Thomas Hardy, “‘Where Heaves the Turf in Many a Mould’ring Heap’”, in A Pair of Blue Eyes. […], volume I, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], published 1873, →OCLC, page 59