How to Use burnish in a Sentence

burnish

verb
  • Oak planks burnished, bleached, and faded over decades.
    — Helen Molesworth, Artforum, 1 Dec. 2025
  • The dark, burnished stew smelled faintly sweet.
    — Restaurant Critic, Houston Chronicle, 6 May 2026
  • The last step is to burnish the wood with a small torch and then apply a top coat.
    — Olivia Young, CBS News, 19 June 2026
  • There’s no British Tan burnished leather or stacked foam soles.
    — Riley Jones, Footwear News, 16 Dec. 2025
  • Quinton notes that burnished brass and bronze are in high demand.
    — Helena Madden, Martha Stewart, 6 Feb. 2026
  • This is a great way to impress the interviewer and burnish your brand right away.
    — Jack Kelly, Forbes, 8 Aug. 2022
  • There are still scoops to promote, projects to tout and reputations to burnish.
    — Brian Steinberg, Variety, 25 Apr. 2026
  • See Leng said, as the city-state seeks to burnish its appeal to the best minds globally.
    — Michelle Jamrisko, Fortune, 6 Sep. 2022
  • The foothills in the distance become burnished in the golden hour’s fading light.
    — Audrey T. Williams, Mercury News, 23 Feb. 2026
  • It has been lifted up for posterity and burnished in a new way by Noel and his team.
    — Simon Thompson, Forbes, 1 Mar. 2024
  • Ruto has burnished his ties with Western leaders.
    — semafor.com, 19 June 2026
  • And under the broiler, it becomes burnished on the bird, almost candied in taste.
    — The Bon Appétit Staff, Bon Appetit Magazine, 6 Feb. 2026
  • My father was part of the conspiracy to burnish my spelling chops.
    — Robert Klose, The Christian Science Monitor, 13 Sep. 2023
  • You’re already primed to it, trying to burnish your product/brand, trying to ‘take’ something.
    — Solitaire Townsend, Forbes, 11 Feb. 2024
  • Apply stencils to eggs and use fingers to burnish along the edges of each shape to ensure it's tightly adhered.
    — Lacey Howard, Better Homes & Gardens, 8 Apr. 2022
  • Getting a taste of the personal lives of players is good for burnishing their own images — and the league’s.
    — Alex Weprin, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Sep. 2023
  • Darker options—like black or burnished gold—are sleek and moody, while natural wood frames feel organic and warm.
    — Sophia Beams, Better Homes & Gardens, 4 Oct. 2025
  • Pakistan’s credentials have been burnished, too.
    — Chas Newkey-Burden, TheWeek, 9 Apr. 2026
  • Never in the history of failing grades has a zero done so much to burnish the profile and prospects of a student.
    — Newsweek Editors, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Dec. 2025
  • But Chapek made things worse with decisions that did little to burnish Disney’s brand.
    — Jena McGregor, Forbes, 28 Dec. 2022
  • The surface appears slightly mottled or burnished, giving it the feel of something that’s been hand-made and used for years.
    — Lauren Bengtson, Better Homes & Gardens, 25 Feb. 2026
  • The company may also seek to burnish other areas of business.
    — Brian Steinberg, Variety, 15 Sep. 2025
  • Saudi Arabia is, of course, not the first country to use sports as a platform to burnish its global image.
    — New York Times, 9 June 2022
  • Some of the patties come with laminated Haitian-style casements that are burnished in a deep fryer.
    — Helen Rosner, New Yorker, 4 Jan. 2026
  • Huang’s chicken is burnished red and rugged, slick with hot duck fat in a shade that indicates something ferociously spicy.
    — Jenn Harris, Los Angeles Times, 11 Sep. 2023
  • Around the time Harman joined the council, the city was working to burnish its national image.
    — Reis Thebault, Washington Post, 2 Mar. 2024
  • With Watt burnishing their sound just enough, songs that could have easily been rote feel revitalized.
    — David Browne, Rolling Stone, 9 Oct. 2023
  • The 28-year-old downplayed any comparisons, or any ambitions on his part to burnish his own image.
    — Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 24 Aug. 2022
  • Key to the effort to burnish pro football’s image has been to highlight the off-the-field activity of players.
    — Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 28 Jan. 2026
  • It has been burnished since, the latest evidence on Saturday.
    — Seth Emerson, New York Times, 19 Oct. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'burnish.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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