spruce
Example Sentences
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Already this year, thousands of white spruce trees in the area around Wisley had browned leaves in early August, a sign they won’t cope with a hotter climate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
With its tar-soaked rigging, creaking oak deck and 50 spruce oars, Draken Harald Harfagre is the largest modern replica of a Viking ship.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
One of the night’s standout dishes was the venison tartare, topped with poached egg yolk and spruce tips and served with rye crackers.
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2026
Martin and Co. guitar, a seamless blend of spruce, mahogany, celluloid, ebony and mother-of-pearl.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
Forest giants like hemlock, Douglas fir, and Sitka spruce waited in the wings.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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"Previously, it was spruces or cedars, but today, we find endemic species better adapted to the climate," Merdan Arazmedov, a member of Turkmenistan's Nature Protection Society, told AFP.
From Barron's ● Dec. 18, 2025
There’s no escaping the fact the simulated emergency care being given under shade of spruces could be carried out in grim reality in the coming weeks and months.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2024
At the head of it all, where the grass grows into a forest mixed with pines, spruces, and birch, is a small bar with a "Huuva Hideaway" sign hanging above.
From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2022
I found that spruces and pines were the easiest to transplant and usually could make the transition from Christmas tree to landscape specimen with few problems.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 11, 2021
It was filled with thousands of perfectly rendered maples, oaks, spruces, and tamaracks.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
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Mr. Kabelac, who seemed the sprucer, less bashful of the two, spoke right up: "I'd be glad to marry her if Mrs. Stull says it's all right."
From Time Magazine Archive
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The Bowdoins, father and son, noted that their old clerk's dress was sprucer.
From Pirate Gold by Frederic Jesup Stimson
Looks sprucer and snappier than I'd ever seen him before, too.
From Wilt Thou Torchy by Sewell Ford
Oh, if my hands adhere to cash, My gloves at least are clean, And rarely have the gentry flash In sprucer clothes been seen.
From Paul Clifford — Complete by Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron Lytton
There was dear old Ralph, looking quite ordinary and matter-of-fact, only rather sprucer than usual in his brand-new wedding garments.
From The Moon out of Reach by Margaret Pedler
Thenceforth, while Britain's Glubb Pasha built the British-equipped Arab Legion into Islam's sprucest fighting force, Abdullah ruled the sandy wastes as a Bedouin black-tent state.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Along thy sprucest bookshelves shine The works thou deemest most divine— The 'Art of Cookery,' and mine, My Murray.
From Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 4 With His Letters and Journals by Thomas Moore
Would any one wish to see these remains tricked out in the sprucest, or even the richest, modern habiliments?
From The Book-Collector A General Survey of the Pursuit and of those who have engaged in it at Home and Abroad from the Earliest Period to the Present Time by William Carew Hazlitt
But Mr. Hugh Wenlock was on deck in the sprucest of his apparel, and was visibly anxious and fidgety, as befitted a man who shortly expected to enter into the bonds of matrimony.
From A Master of Fortune Being Further Adventures of Captain Kettle by Stanley L. Wood
Some buildings were spruced up as part of a tourism drive launched in the 1990s, which peaked in the years following the landmark 2016 visit by former US President Barack Obama.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
He’s pleased to see the estate being spruced up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2025
By that point, gay marriage had become the law of the land and a new bar using the Stonewall name, now spruced up for tourists, had taken over the space, with a museum next door.
From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2024
A massive 2008 restoration project spruced things up and placed the entire building on rubber earthquake pads.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2024
Last summer my mom and I spruced up the old cupboards with a coat of high-gloss white and threw down some chunky black and white checked linoleum.
From "Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet" by Joanne Proulx
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I like sprucing up my ramen with fresh bok choy, baby corn, spinach and pickled red onions.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
The project -- part of the capital city's sprucing up ahead of the nation's 250th anniversary celebrations on July 4 -- will cost about $1.5 million and take roughly three weeks, Trump told reporters Thursday.
From Barron's ● Apr. 25, 2026
While Malik welcomes the top court's observations and directions, she says that along with sprucing up laws, there's an urgent need to ensure their proper implementation.
From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2026
Walmart is sprucing up its home goods to attract more high-income shoppers and better compete with the e-commerce titan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 2, 2026
“It could use some sprucing up,” Håkon agreed.
From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack
Vocabulary lists containing spruce
Front Desk
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Novel Study: The Outsiders, Chapters 6–12
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"The Minister's Black Veil," Vocabulary from the short story
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