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Definition of Spit and polish
1. Noun. Careful attention to order and appearance (as in the military).
Generic synonyms: Order, Orderliness
Lexicographical Neighbors of Spit And Polish
Literary usage of Spit and polish
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. The Memoirs of Admiral Lord Charles Beresford by Leslie Cope Cornford (1914)
"From that day onwards I set myself steadily against bright-work and spit-and-polish.
My objection to bright- work is that you have first to dirty it with ..."
2. Heresies of Sea Power by Frederick Thomas Jane (1906)
"That ' spit and polish ' was merely a really essential thing, overdone in the course
... spit and polish is the overgrown child of seeking after efficiency, ..."
3. General Kenney Reports: A Personal History of the Pacific War by George C. Kenney (1997)
"He would never look like a spit-and- polish soldier, but he could visualize and
plan a military operation with the best of them. ..."
4. Macmillan's Magazine by David Masson, George Grove, John Morley, Mowbray Morris (1898)
"... to Constitutions of any nation in the future, nor yet of neglecting our gunnery
for " spit and polish," important as that is within rational limits. ..."
5. Battlefields of the World War, Western and Southern Fronts: A Study in by Douglas Wilson Johnson (1921)
"... up to that high standard of cleanliness which has earned for the British troops
the enviable if somewhat unpoetic name of "the spit-and-polish army. ..."
6. The Russian Army and the Japanese War: Being Historical and Critical by Aleksei Nikolaevich Kuropatkin' (1909)
"spit and polish and parade smartness were considered far more than battle
efficiency, and more attention was paid to the " manual exercise " and to ..."
7. The United Service (1904)
"... his force—not "spit and polish" of old fame. Target practice became the
continual occupation of the ships, even while the negotiations were in progress. ..."
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