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Prussian leather. [Obs.] Dryden.

Any coniferous tree of the genus Picea, as the Norway spruce (P. excelsa), and the white and black spruces of America (P. alba and P. nigra), besides several others in the far Northwest. See Picea.

enus of coniferous trees, properly called Fir, as the balsam fir and the silver fir. The spruces are sometimes also referred to this genus.

alse show; assuming or pretending to posses what is not natural or real. He is . . . too spruce, too affected, too odd. Shak.

Affectation. [Obs.] "Spruce affection." Shak.

A fermented extract of the roots and other parts of various plants, as spruce, ginger, sassafras, etc. Small beer, weak beer; (fig.) insignificant matters. "To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer." Shak.

, France. Burgundy pitch, a resinous substance prepared from the exudation of the Norway spruce (Abies excelsa) by melting in hot water and straining through cloth. The genuine Burgundy pitch, supposed to have been first prepared in Burgundy, is rare, but there are many imitations. It has a yellowish brown color, is tr…

A seller of fish. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell. Chowder beer, a liquor made by boiling black spruce in water and mixing molasses with the decoction.

Neat; spruce. [Obs.] Cotgrave.

Little and active; spruce; trim; smart; neat in dress or appearance; lively. He wondered how so many provinces could be held in subjection by such a dapper little man. Milton. The dapper ditties that I wont devise. Spenser. Sharp-nosed, dapper steam yachts. Julian Hawthorne.

Apt; fit; dexterous; clever; handy; spruce; neat. [Archaic or Poetic] "The deftest way." Shak. "Deftest feats." Gay. The limping god, do deft at his new ministry. Dryden. Let me be deft and debonair. Byron.

ow come from East Indian trees, of the genus Boswellia; a commoner sort, from the Norway spruce (Abies excelsa) and other coniferous trees. The frankincense of the ancient Jews is still unidentified.

The state or quality of being gemmy; spruceness; smartness.

Spruce; smart. [Colloq. Eng.]

Neat; spruce. [Prov.]

Smart; spruce; trim; nice. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]

An evergreen tree common in North America (Abies, or Tsuga, Canadensis); hemlock spruce. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks. Longfellow.

Spruceness. [Slang, Eng.] Pegge (1814).

Spruce. [Slang, Eng.] Smart.

Neat; tidy; spruce. [Colloq.] -- Nat"ti*ly, adv. -- Nat"ti*ness, n.