Definition of "burnished"

burnished

verb
1. simple past and past participle of burnish
adjective
not comparable
1. Polished, made shiny by rubbing (especially with a burnisher).
  Quotations
  The frame of burnish'd steel, that cast a glareFrom far, and seemed to thaw the freezing air.
  1700, John Dryden, "Palamon and Arcite", in Fables, Ancient and Modern
  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.
  1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company
2. (figurative) Blazing, bright.
  Quotations
  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.
  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, [Act II, scene i], page 167

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