Furnish

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ˈfɝnɪʃ/

Definitions

1. To provide or supply what is needed or wanted ; to equip or decorate a room or building with furniture and fittings
2. To make available or deliver items or information ; to outfit an interior space with necessary furnishings and accessories
3. To give or offer materials, equipment, or services ; to arrange furniture and other items in a home or office space

Etymology: Furnish began as a word about getting things done. Its ancestor, a Frankish verb "frumjan," meant "to complete" or "to execute," and it sits in a family that also produced Old English "fremian," "to promote, perform," and Old English "fremu," meaning "profit" or "advantage." The sense of supplying what someone needs came from that idea of carrying a task through to its end. The verb passed into Middle English through Old French "furnir" (modern French "fournir"), whose stems gave English the form "furnisshen." Over time the notion of completing a job narrowed into providing the means to do it, and then into supplying whatever was lacking. The sense of equipping a room or building with furniture and fittings came from that same idea of supplying what a space needs to be complete.

Synonyms: provide, supply, equip, outfit, fit out

Antonyms: remove, withdraw, deprive, take away, strip