(a.) To cause to shine; to make smooth and bright; to polish; specifically, to polish by rubbing with something hard and smooth; as, to burnish brass or paper.
(v. i.) To shine forth; to brighten; to become smooth and glossy, as from swelling or filling out; hence, to grow large.
(n.) The effect of burnishing; gloss; brightness; luster.
Example Sentences:
(1) Brewdog backs down over Lone Wolf pub trademark dispute Read more The fast-growing Scottish brewer, which has burnished its underdog credentials with vocal criticism of how major brewers operate , recently launched a vodka brand called Lone Wolf.
(2) I knew immediately the words came out it would be cut.” At a time of intense pressure on the media to cooperate with an army public relations campaign that is burnishing the image of General Sharif, channels routinely edit out or drop the sound on the mildest criticism of the military.
(3) But while some have undoubtedly burnished the government's green credentials – the commitment to pushing Europe to a 30% emissions cut by 2020 , for instance – others have been less successful.
(4) The granular structures on the burnished amalgam surface were found to be of tin-mercury alloy.
(5) He wants the decision to be made in the interests of fighting crime and for it not to be used by the Tories to burnish their Eurosceptic credentials.
(6) Despite the U-turn on austerity, Mr Tsipras has burnished an image as a bold defender of his nation.
(7) When cavity varnish use was compared with no use of cavity varnish, significantly less microleakage was noted with the nonburnished control, single-burnish, and double-burnish techniques utilizing the cavity varnish.
(8) The trip is meant to bolster his state’s economic and cultural ties with the UK, though it has the added benefit of burnishing his foreign policy credentials ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
(9) The types and distribution of airborne microorganisms isolated from microbial air samples were not unusual nor were they directly influenced by the floor burnishing processes.
(10) The coalition has tried to blame Labour for £150m cuts in housing and burnished their progressive credentials with an extra £170m to fund social housing.
(11) No significant increase or decrease in microleakage occurred as a result of single or double burnishing of amalgam.
(12) The Liberal Democrats are to burnish their credentials as the tax-cutting party for the low paid by floating the possibility of cutting national insurance contributions for anyone earning below £12,500 a year.
(13) Helen Hunt and John Hawkes are deservedly recognised for their fine performances in The Sessions, while Kathryn Bigelow 's sombre, gripping Zero Dark Thirty bags a quartet of nominations, burnishing its credentials as the dark horse of this year's Oscar race.
(14) So there would be no big job for Corbyn in a Cooper shadow cabinet, and the new leader will instead seek to reach out to the left by highlighting some of the traditional Labour values she burnished during the campaign.
(15) These spaces in the burnished specimens were filled with an amorphous bulk of amalgam apparently caused by the burnishing process.
(16) The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of citric acid and tetracycline HCl application to dentin surfaces by a "passive dripping" or an "active burnishing" technique.
(17) This could allow Johnson to burnish his Eurosceptic credentials before the Tory leadership contest by endorsing the out campaign while claiming that he is not calling for a definitive break with the EU.
(18) The current-density peak associated with gamma2 was of greater magnitude in polished specimens than in burnished specimens throughout the range of mercury concentrations investigated.
(19) The leak prompted some senior Tories to declare that Gove was "on manoeuvres" to burnish his blue Tory credentials as the party looks to a future after Cameron.
(20) The Barnsley Central MP and former paratrooper had appeared to be burnishing his leadership credentials with an article calling for Labour to embrace change and a wide-ranging speech next week setting out his economic vision.
Pompous
Definition:
(a.) Displaying pomp; stately; showy with grandeur; magnificent; as, a pompous procession.
(1) Leave aside the noxious and pompous view that the views of non-national-security-professionals - whatever that means - should be ignored when it comes to militarism, US foreign policy and war crimes.
(2) On last Friday's Radio 4 Today programme , the historian Robert Service played his part to perfection, pompously advising the BBC to "get some sense of proportion".
(3) He says that the idea of the corrupt, lying, pompous politician has become "the equivalent of the mother-in-law or Irish joke of the 1970s".
(4) As the debate reached its conclusion, Stockwood, dressed grandly in a purple cassock and pompously fondling his crucifix in a way that was devastatingly lampooned by Rowan Atkinson a week later on a Not the Nine O'Clock News sketch, delivered his parting shot of, "You'll get your 30 pieces of silver."
(5) She was terrifying but not pompous, and she could be quite playful, quite cosy in a strange way."
(6) Auda is more of a problem: his character is portrayed as an unreformed savage who cares only for violence, treasure and his own pompous self-image.
(7) Giles Oakley London • In conception and format, it was trite – while being undeservedly pompous and self-esteeming.
(8) About three years ago, he was teasing me about something – being thick probably, or making pompous speeches.
(9) His chairman, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, was more magnificently pompous, as befits an ex-foreign secretary.
(10) Please don't read my pompous views above as referring to the great majority of gallery shows, where dealers display art they hope someone will want to buy for their home, and new collectors are born every week.
(11) When those inside the temple are pompous hypocrites, maybe it is the better place to be.
(12) Those who actively seek out linguistic slip-ups will correct you with such glee that it makes you doubt whether their commitment to "calling out" bigotry matches their commitment to pompous arseholerly.
(13) Chaplin himself wrote about this process: "Sometimes a musician would get pompous with me, and I would cut him short: 'Whatever the melody is, the rest is just a vamp.'
(14) I realised that my goal here really is to represent – it sounds super-pompous – how we think and how we associate.
(15) "Without wishing to sound pompous, I do more research now than ever.
(16) I will leave the public to judge his actions.” Mick Cash, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, said it should be no surprise that his black cab members across London were considering “a boycott of the Tory toff David Mellor over his outrageous, pompous and disgraceful tirade against one of their colleagues”.
(17) Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – five reasons we're still slightly worried Read more This caped crusader has had a personality upgrade Facebook Twitter Pinterest Photograph: Warner Bros The Batman we met in The Lego Movie aways seemed an unlikely candidate for his own solo film, a pompous jerk who was more Flash Thompson than Bruce Wayne.
(18) It was as absurd for a Tory MP to demand Abbott's resignation from the shadow cabinet on account of this remark as it was for Ed Miliband to tell her pompously "in no uncertain terms" that it had been "unacceptable".
(19) It's pompous twaddle with no relevance to fucking anything."
(20) This is all the more surprising since Tolstoy seems to speak freely, in his fiction, with the sort of moralistic-prophetic voice – the voice of a teacher of right and wrong – that lesser writers are obliged to use sparingly, unless they want to sound pompous and didactic.