burnished

• burnisht

burnished

1. simple past and past participle of burnish

burnished (not comparable)

1. Polished, made shiny by rubbing (especially with a burnisher).
   • 1700, John Dryden, "Palamon and Arcite", in Fables, Ancient and Modern:

     The frame of burnish'd steel, that cast a glare
     From far, and seemed to thaw the freezing air.

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     The house was a big elaborate limestone affair, evidently new. Winter sunshine sparkled on lace-hung casement, on glass marquise, and the burnished bronze foliations of grille and door.

   • 1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 33:

     Henchmen had placed, as was their habit, each warrior's gear and trappings above his pile of skins. Thus you could see the burnished helmet of each warrior set in readiness above his head. It was the Viking habit.

2. (figurative) Blazing, bright.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 167:

     Mor. Miſlike me not for my complexion,
     The ſhadowed liuerie of the burniſht ſunne,
     To whom I am a neighbour,and neere bred.
     Bring me the faireſt creature North-ward borne,
     Where Phœbus fire ſcarce thawes the yſicles,
     And let vs make inciſion for your loue,
     To proue whoſe blood is reddeſt,his or mine.