## Meanings
1. To rub the surface of something to make it smooth and shiny.
2. To improve something by making small changes until it is as good as it can be.
3. A substance you rub onto something to make it shiny.
4. A high level of skill, style, or refinement in performance.

## Examples
- He polished the chrome until it gleamed.
- She spent the weekend polishing her presentation.
- A good silver polish will remove tarnish easily.
- The lecturer spoke with great polish.

## Synonyms
- hone
- perfect
- refine

## Derived Forms
- apple-polish
- depolish
- electropolish
- expolish
- interpolish
- micropolish
- nanopolish
- overpolish
- piano-polish
- polishability
- polishable
- polished

## Related Forms
- polissoir
- polite

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *pel- (beat)
- Root: polishen
- Root: polio
- Root: *pelh₂-

## Etymology
From Middle English polishen, from Old French poliss-, stem of some of the conjugated forms of polir, from Latin polīre (“to polish, make smooth”), from Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂- (“to drive, strike, thrust”), from the notion of fulling cloth.

## AI Etymology
Polish comes from Middle English polishen, from Old French poliss-, stem of some of the conjugated forms of polir, from Latin polīre (“to polish, make smooth”), from Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂- (“to drive, strike, thrust”), from the notion of fulling cloth. In present-day English it covers to rub the surface of something to make it smooth and shiny, to improve something by making small changes until it is as good as it can be, and a substance you rub onto something to make it shiny. The wider family includes derived forms such as apple-polish, depolish, electropolish, expolish, interpolish and related forms such as polissoir, polite.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Cause, Change & Process

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