furnish
FUR-nish
/ˈfɜːrnɪʃ/
To provide a house or room with furniture and other necessary fittings.
While 'decorate' means to make a space beautiful, 'furnish' focuses on the practical act of supplying the actual furniture needed to live in it.
The story behind the word. The word comes from the Old French 'furnir,' which meant 'to complete, accomplish, or equip.' When you furnish a room, you are literally 'completing' it by providing the necessary equipment to make it livable.
Word relationships
- equip: Equip is used for providing tools or gear for a specific task, while furnish is specifically used for providing furniture for a living space.
- provide: Provide is a general term for supplying anything, whereas furnish is highly associated with furniture and fittings.
- strip: Strip means to completely empty a room of all its furniture and fixtures.
Commonly confused with
- decorate: Decorate means to add ornaments and color to make a space attractive, whereas furnish means to supply the essential furniture.
Word family
- furnished (adjective): Containing furniture (e.g., a furnished apartment).
- furnishings (noun): Furniture, apparatus, and other decorative accessories in a room.
Collocations
- fully furnish
- furnish a room
- tastefully furnished
- furnish with antiques
Example sentences
- "It can be incredibly expensive to fully furnish a new apartment from scratch, so many students buy secondhand items." Moving into a new apartment
- "The landlord agreed to furnish the living room with a sofa, a coffee table, and a television stand before we moved in." A landlord describing a rental property
Memory hook
To furnish a house is to put furniture in it so it is finished and ready to live in. Complete with furniture.
When not to use
Do not use 'furnish' when you are only adding small decorative items like candles or paintings; those 'adorn' or 'decorate' a room.
Fun facts
- In legal contexts, 'furnish' can also mean to supply information or documents, as in 'to furnish proof.'
Related words
Explore more words
refurbish, embellish, ornament, functional, accommodate, burnish
Take your vocabulary further with LangBlitz
Our English vocabulary app: FSRS spaced repetition, 5,000+ curated words across 119 topic groups, CEFR A1 to C2. Explore your mastery with the beautiful Vocabulary World feature.