furnish

English

Etymology

From Middle English furnysshen, from Old French furniss-, stem of certain parts of furnir, fornir (Modern French fournir), from Germanic, from Frankish *frumjan (“to complete, execute”), from Proto-Germanic *frumjaną (“to further, promote”), from Proto-Indo-European *promo- (“front, forward”). Cognate with Old High German frumjan (“to perform, provide”), Old High German fruma (“utility, gain”), Old English fremu (“profit, advantage”), Old English fremian (“to promote, perform”). More at frame, frim.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɝnɪʃ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɜːnɪʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fur‧nish

Noun

furnish (plural furnishes)

1. Material used to create an engineered product.
   • 2003, Martin E. Rogers, Timothy E. Long, “Synthetic Methods in Step-growth Polymers”, in IEEE, Wiley, page 257:

     The resin-coated furnish is evenly spread inside the form and another metal plate is placed on top.

Verb

furnish (third-person singular simple present furnishes, present participle furnishing, simple past and past participle furnished)

1. (transitive) To provide a place with furniture, or other equipment.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 58:

     The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.

   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., , , →OCLC, page 17:

     Then his sallow face brightened, for the hall had been carefully furnished, and was very clean. ¶ There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.

2. (transitive, figuratively) To supply or give (something).
   • 1714 (date written), [Jonathan Swift], Some Free Thoughts upon the Present State of Affairs. , Dublin, London: T. Cooper, , published 1741, →OCLC, page 3:

     […] Miniſters are ſo wiſe to leave their Proceedings to be accounted for by Reaſoners at a Diſtance, who often mould them into Syſtems, that do not only go down very well in the Coffee-Houſe, but are Supplies for Pamphlets in the preſent Age, and may probably furniſh Materials for Memoirs and Hiſtories in the next.

   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter VI, in Pride and Prejudice: , volume II, London: for T Egerton, , →OCLC, page 67:

     [H]e took his seat at the bottom of the table, by her ladyship's desire, and looked as if he felt that life could furnish nothing greater.

   • 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter IV, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 507:

     But his writings and his life furnish abundant proofs that he was not a man of strong sense.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To supply (somebody) with something.
   • 1669 August 26, “ III. Ottonis Tachenii Hippocrates Chymicus. Venetiis in 12º.”, in Philosophical Transactions: Giving Some Accompt of the Present Undertakings, Studies and Labours of the Ingenious in Many Considerable Parts of the World, volume IV, number 50, London: Printed by T. N. for John Martyn , printer to the Royal Society, published 1670, →OCLC, pages 1019–1020:

     For, that the ordure, which continually gathers on the skin, would ſoon ſtop the pores of it, if the ſweat were not furniſht with ſome efficacious diſſolvent to open and pierce them.

   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “Several Adventures that Happened to the Author. ”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. , volume I, London: Benj Motte, , →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), page 247:

     I was every day furniſhing the Court with ſome ridiculous Story; and Glumdalclitch, although ſhe loved me to Exceſs, yet was arch enough to inform the Queen, whenever I committed any Folly that ſhe thought would be diverting to her Majeſty.

   • 1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “Narrating How Lieutenant Puddock and Captain Devereux Brewed a Bowl of Punch, and How They Sang and Discoursed Together”, in The House by the Church-yard. , volume I, London: Tinsley, Brothers, , →OCLC, page 304:

     [...] Mrs. Irons rebelled in her bed, and refused peremptorily to get up again, to furnish the musical topers with rum and lemons, [...]

Derived terms

Related terms

• furniture

Translations

Further reading

• “furnish”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “furnish”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “furnish”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Manx

Etymology

From Old French fornais (compare Irish foirnéis, Scottish Gaelic fòirneis), from Latin fornāx.

Noun

furnish m (genitive singular furnish, plural furnishyn)

1. furnace

Mutation

References

• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “2 foirnéis”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language