neaten
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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Few things neaten a naturalistic garden like fresh edging around beds.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 8, 2023
The brief was to reduce the bulk at the sides and neaten the perimeter.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 24, 2020
In the company’s classic Franco Zeffirelli production, after Rodolfo calls out to ask who’s at the door and a woman’s voice answers, he rushes over to a mirror to neaten his hair.
From New York Times ● Jan. 10, 2020
There is only so much we can really put away even though I’ve started making the effort to remove anything truly personal when I neaten up ahead of company.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 30, 2017
I balance the tray in one hand and sweep up the spoon, taking a moment to neaten the crockery before approaching the door.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
"Wait—" She adjusts my collar, neatens up my tie.
From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon
We can’t do it without you,’” said Frank Morales, a gravedigger who had just power-washed the monument and neatened the collection of memorabilia that fans leave behind.
From New York Times ● Oct. 5, 2018
But now, said Mr. Rohr, sitting amid the neatened destruction, “It’s time to resume a normal routine.”
From New York Times ● Jul. 4, 2011
She bent forward and neatened a stack of papers on the desk.
From "The Rock and the River" by Kekla Magoon
She neatened the border of her sari where it rose diagonally across her chest.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Getting through it can take powerful magic, huge acts of transformation and small acts of neatening.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 19, 2020
“It feels like a small act of neatening that I really appreciate,” says Daniel Lavery, the author of Slate’s Dear Prudence advice column.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 19, 2020
A thematic approach can be a tricky, Procrustean way to go; you’re basically imposing an artificially neatening template on an unruly career.
From New York Times ● Oct. 16, 2014
But at the beginning the Callaway Connection manifested itself mainly in a comprehensive neatening up of what they could do already.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 14, 2013
So I folded that piece of paper really small, and, pretending I was neatening up my braid, I wound it into my hair.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
