See also: Furnish

English edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English furnysshen, from Old French furniss-, stem of certain parts of furnir, fornir (Modern French fournir), from Germanic, from Frankish *frumjan (to complete, execute), from Proto-Germanic *frumjaną (to further, promote), from Proto-Indo-European *promo- (front, forward). Cognate with Old High German frumjan (to perform, provide), Old High German fruma (utility, gain), Old English fremu (profit, advantage), Old English fremian (to promote, perform). More at frame, frim.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

furnish (plural furnishes)

  1. Material used to create an engineered product.
    • 2003, Martin E. Rogers, Timothy E. Long, “Synthetic Methods in Step-growth Polymers”, in IEEE, Wiley, page 257:
      The resin-coated furnish is evenly spread inside the form and another metal plate is placed on top.

Verb edit

furnish (third-person singular simple present furnishes, present participle furnishing, simple past and past participle furnished)

  1. (transitive) To provide a place with furniture, or other equipment.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 58:
      The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.
    • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., [], [1933], →OCLC, page 17:
      Then his sallow face brightened, for the hall had been carefully furnished, and was very clean. ¶ There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.
  2. (transitive, figuratively) To supply or give (something).
    • 1714 (date written), [Jonathan Swift], Some Free Thoughts upon the Present State of Affairs. [], Dublin, London: [] T. Cooper, [], published 1741, →OCLC, page 3:
      [] Miniſters are ſo wiſe to leave their Proceedings to be accounted for by Reaſoners at a Diſtance, who often mould them into Syſtems, that do not only go down very well in the Coffee-Houſe, but are Supplies for Pamphlets in the preſent Age, and may probably furniſh Materials for Memoirs and Hiſtories in the next.
    • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter VI, in Pride and Prejudice: [], volume II, London: [] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, [], →OCLC, page 67:
      [H]e took his seat at the bottom of the table, by her ladyship's desire, and looked as if he felt that life could furnish nothing greater.
    • 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter IV, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 507:
      But his writings and his life furnish abundant proofs that he was not a man of strong sense.
  3. (transitive, figuratively) To supply (somebody) with something.

Derived terms edit

Related terms edit

Translations edit

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Further reading edit

Manx edit

Etymology edit

From Old French fornais (compare Irish foirnéis, Scottish Gaelic fòirneis), from Latin fornāx.

Noun edit

furnish m (genitive singular furnish, plural furnishyn)

  1. furnace

Mutation edit

Manx mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
furnish urnish vurnish
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References edit