polishmentn.
/ˈpɒlᵻʃm(ə)nt/, U.S. /ˈpɑləʃm(ə)nt/ now rare.
The action of polishing, improving, or bringing to completion; the fact of being polished; an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > good taste > refinement > [noun]
policya1522
neatness1555
finesse1564
politure1593
polishedness1594
polishment1594
polish1597
polishure1611
refinedness1612
refinement1704
refinery1746
sophistication1915
the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > improvement > [noun] > purification or refinement
polishingc1400
mellowing1528
smoothing1577
polishment1594
refinement1611
alembication1616
lustrationc1635
purification1753
burnishing1780
smoothification1799
limation1852
the world > space > shape > flatness or levelness > smoothness > [noun] > polished or glossy smoothness > action, fact, or condition of
polishing1419
polishment1594
polishure1611
polish1629
glossing1875
1594 R. Carew tr. J. Huarte Exam. Mens Wits ix. 124 The practise of languages, and the ornament and polishment of speech [Sp. el ornamento y policia en hablar; It. l'ornamento, & la politezza del parlare] may verie well be ioyned with positiue diuinitie.
1633 H. Wotton Let. 3 June in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ (1672) 465 It is strange to see what a polishment so base a stuffe doth take.
1694 E. Phillips tr. J. Milton Lett. of State p. xxxii The person that took the pains to prepare it for his Examination and Polishment.
1799 C. Cooke Battleridge I. iv. 65 We insisted upon Mr. Murray's travelling for two years: not that polishment was necessary, but as a test of both the young people's constancy.
1867 Harper's Mag. Aug. 406/1 His polishments were crowned with success, and at the end of the shiny season he had brushed together goodly greenbacks to the amount of fifty dollars.
1963 S. F. Bemis et al. Amer. Secretaries of State XI. vi. 238 Stimson spent time with Allen Klots in a final ‘polishment’ of the note.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1594