Freshen

v. [f. FRESH a. + -EN⁵.]

  1.  intr. To become fresh. a. Of the wind: To begin to blow fresh; to increase in strength. Also with up. Const. into.

1697.  Dampier, Voy., I. iv. 79. The wind came about to the Eastward and freshened upon us.

1760.  G. Washington, Writ. (1889), II. 143. The Wind freshened up as the Evening came on and causd a most intense frost indeed no thaw had been the whole day.

1836.  Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xvii. 97. The wind now freshened fast, and blew out the green petticoat, but the Harpy was exchanging broadsides with the corvette, and too busy to look after Jack’s ensign.

1884.  D. Pae, Eustace, 197. The wind was again freshening into a gale.

  b.  To assume a fresh look; to become bright or vivid; to brighten.

1819–20.  W. Irving, Sketch Bk., Christm. Dinner (1865), 281. How truly is a kind heart a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity to freshen into smiles!

1848.  C. Brontë, J. Eyre, ix. A greenness grew over those brown beds, which freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps.

  c.  To grow fresh; to lose salt or saltness.

1864.  in Webster; whence in mod. Dicts.

  2.  trans. To make FRESH, in various senses: esp. to recruit, renew, revive, give freshness to; to remove salt or saltness from. Also with up.

1749.  F. Smith, Voy. Disc. N.-W. Pass., II. 14. The thickness of Ice, was caused by the over-flowing of the Tides, which came up through the Cracks of the Ice, or by the Water Holes, which were cut in the Ice, for freshening the Meat.

1764.  Goldsm., The Traveller, 245.

1777.  Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1778), I. II. 138. In this conflict, the irresistible torrent of the [Orinoco] river so far prevails, that it freshens the ocean many leagues with its flood.

1801.  Mar. Edgeworth, Belinda (1833), II. xxi. 90. I only thought to open the door to let in a little air to freshen the room, which my lady always likes.

1805.  Southey, in Ann. Rev., III. 227. [They] get into the suburbs … and freshen themselves for the confinement of the week to come. Ibid. (1808), Lett. (1856), II. 94. He will beat the Austrians, and freshen his popularity in France by so doing.

1856.  Lowell, Lett. (1894), I. 254. It would freshen up my Italian, which has fallen frightfully into abeyance here.

1860–1.  Flo. Nightingale, Nursing, 70. It freshens up a sick person’s whole mind to see ‘the baby.’

1863.  Geo. Eliot, Romola, I. i. The good wives of the market freshened their utensils.

1871.  Napheys, Prev. & Cure Dis., I. iii. 95. It [spring-water] is freshened with carbonic acid gas purified by passing through the natural filter of the earthly strata.

1874.  Deutsch, Rem., 258–9. And must we again freshen up their memory on one or two little points in ecclesiastical history?

1877.  Goodholme’s Dom. Cycl. 113. Freshen [salt codfish] by leaving it in water an hour.

  3.  Naut. ‘To relieve (a rope) of its strain, or danger of chafing, by shifting or removing its place of nip’ (Adm. Smyth). To freshen hawse, the nip: to pay out more cable, so as to change the place of the part exposed to friction. To freshen ballast: ‘to divide or separate it, so as to alter its position’ (Adm. Smyth). To freshen way: of a ship, to increase the speed; also transf. of a passenger or traveller.

1855.  Capt. Chamier, My Trav., I. xi. 177. I freshened my way, and got home as quickly as possible.

  Hence Freshened, Freshening ppl. adjs. Also Freshener, something that freshens; spec. a spell of exercise for ‘freshening’ a horse.

1794.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xvi.

1817.  Moore, Lalla R. (1824), 223. Gave her cheeks all the freshened animation of a flower that the Bid-musk had just pass’d over.

1884.  Advance (Chicago), 13 March. Change of method will be a freshener of interest.

1889.  Mrs. Randolph, New Eve, I. i. 11. I thought of taking the bays out for a freshener on the cliff.

1894.  Westm. Gaz., 31 Aug., 3/1. The simplest form of this grafting process is the bringing together of ‘freshened’ edges of flesh.