titivate

English

WOTD – 13 April 2010

Modification of earlier spelling tidivate, perhaps based on tidy + -vate, on the pattern of words like cultivate and renovate.

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To make small improvements or alterations to (one's appearance etc.); to add some finishing touches to.
- 1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast
  Had she spent the best part of a day in titivating herself in order that she might sit plunged in darkness, with nothing but her feet and her nose revealed?

to make small improvements to