Polished \Pol"ished\, a. Made smooth and glossy, as by friction; hence, highly finished; refined; polite; as, polished plate; polished manners; polished verse. [1913 Webster]

Source: The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
 

Polish \Pol"ish\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Polished; p. pr. & vb. n. Polishing.]

[F. polir, L. polire. Cf. Polite, -ish]

1. To make smooth and glossy, usually by friction; to burnish; to overspread with luster; as, to polish glass, marble, metals, etc. [1913 Webster]

2. Hence, to refine; to wear off the rudeness, coarseness, or rusticity of; to make elegant and polite; as, to polish life or manners. --Milton. [1913 Webster]

To polish off, to finish completely, as an adversary. [Slang] --W. H. Russell. [1913 Webster]

Source: The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
 

127 Moby Thesaurus words for "polished": Attic, Ciceronian, accomplished, adept, advanced, ameliorated, archetypical, beautified, bettered, buffed, burnished, chaste, civilized, classic, clear, complete, consummate, converted, courtly, cultivated, cultured, dainty, debonair, delicate, developed, direct, discriminating, distingue, easy, educated, elegant, embellished, enhanced, enriched, excellent, exemplary, exhaustive, expert, fastidious, faultless, fine, finished, flawless, fully developed, fully realized, furbished, genteel, gentle, gentlemanlike, gentlemanly, gifted, glace, glassy, glazed, gleaming, glistening, glossy, graceful, gracile, gracious, highbred, impeccable, improved, lacquered, ladylike, limpid, lucid, lustrous, masterful, masterly, mature, matured, model, natural, neat, nice, outstanding, pellucid, perfect, perfected, perspicuous, plain, polite, proficient, pure, quintessential, refined, reformed, restrained, ripe, ripened, round, rubbed, satiny, sheeny, shellacked, shined, shining, shiny, silken, silky, simple, sleek, slick, smarmy, soignee, sophisticated, straightforward, subtle, superb, superior, superlative, tasteful, terse, thorough, transfigured, transformed, trim, unaffected, unlabored, urbane, varnished, velvety, virtuoso, well-bred, well-brought-up, well-mannered

Source: Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
 

polished adj
1: perfected or made shiny and smooth; "his polished prose"; "in a freshly ironed dress and polished shoes"; "freshly polished silver" [ant: unpolished]
2: showing a high degree of refinement and the assurance that comes from wide social experience; "his polished manner"; "maintained an urbane tone in his letters" [syn: refined, svelte, urbane]
3: (of grains especially rice) having the husk or outer layers removed; "polished rice" [syn: milled]
4: (of lumber or stone) to trim and smooth [syn: dressed]

Source: WordNet (r) 2.0
 

Polished \Pol"ished\, a. Made smooth and glossy, as by friction; hence, highly finished; refined; polite; as, polished plate; polished manners; polished verse.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Polish \Pol"ish\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Polished; p. pr. & vb. n. Polishing.]

[F. polir, L. polire. Cf. Polite, -ish]

1. To make smooth and glossy, usually by friction; to burnish; to overspread with luster; as, to polish glass, marble, metals, etc.

2. Hence, to refine; to wear off the rudeness, coarseness, or rusticity of; to make elegant and polite; as, to polish life or manners. --Milton.

To polish off, to finish completely, as an adversary. [Slang] --W. H. Russell.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)