Vocabulary
Burnish
English and Urdu gloss, synonyms and antonyms, and example usage from our editorial sentence cache where available.
English meaning
polish (something, especially metal) by rubbing.
Example sentences (from Dawn)
Sentences are selected from stored editorial text where your search word appears. If none appear yet, run the admin sentence generator for fuller coverage.
- President Donald Trump, eager to burnish his credentials aspeacemaker, took credit for the ceasefire.
- The fact that Trump mentioned his role at least two dozen times was part of his effort to burnish his credentials as a `peacemaker`.
- Such aggressive rhetoric also has an obvious political purpose as it helps Modi burnish his anti-Muslim credentials.
- Addressing an event to mark the anniversary of the Kargil war on Friday, Mr Modi used the occasion to lambast Pakistan, trotting out the tired old trope of `terrorism` in an attempt to burnish his nationalistic credentials.
- Providing some relief to the Palestinians in the West Bank will also help to burnish US credentials and image among Arab and other Muslim countries even if Israelgets abetterbargain out ofthis.
Synonyms
polish (up), shine, brighten, rub up/down, buff (up), smooth, glaze, furbish
Curator example
“highly burnished armour”
More vocabulary to explore
About this vocabulary section.
These entries support close reading of Dawn editorials and opinion pieces: short definitions,
Urdu equivalents where we have them, word relations, and—when generated—real lines from the editorial archive
so you can see tone and usage.
Common questions
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- No. Word pages are open to everyone. You can read meanings in English and Urdu, synonyms and antonyms, and example sentences without creating an account.
- Where do the example sentences come from?
- When available, example sentences are drawn from cached matches in our Dawn editorial corpus so you can see how a word is used in real newsroom-style prose.
- How is this different from a dictionary?
- This section is curated for students preparing for competitive exams and editorial reading. Entries are compact, often include Urdu glosses, and are paired with in-context lines from editorials when we have them.