The word titivate apparently was derived from tidy with a quasi-Latin suffix added. From Wordnik.com. [Word Fugitives] Reference
Let me go down and settle whilst you call in your black man and titivate a bit. From Wordnik.com. [The Virginians] Reference
Every day the order would go out to 'titivate the ship,' which meant to 'spruce it up or make it neat and orderly.'. From Wordnik.com. [Word Fugitives] Reference
If they had any sense, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, on whose northern border this is, would buy it off him, titivate it a bit, and open it as a nineteenth-century museum. From Wordnik.com. [Portobello] Reference
From beside the Long Water in the last of the pale sunlight, she came out into Marylebone, and bethought herself that before she went to the Foreign Office she must go where she could titivate. From Wordnik.com. [Maid in Waiting] Reference
In the summer he had paid £40,000 to others to titivate his garden. From Wordnik.com. [Telegraph.co.uk: news business sport the Daily Telegraph newspaper Sunday Telegraph] Reference
You titivate yourself, and we'll dine at the Savoy, or anywhere you please. From Wordnik.com. [Tales of the Five Towns] Reference
I'll give them half an hour's study whilst you wash up the tea things and titivate. From Wordnik.com. [Mrs. Warren's Daughter A Story of the Woman's Movement] Reference
When she heard I was going to England she said: 'Why, then, my dear Kitty, you must titivate up. From Wordnik.com. [Wild Kitty] Reference
They said that when he saw the shearers coming he'd say, "Run and titivate yourself, Mary; here comes the shearers!". From Wordnik.com. [Children of the Bush] Reference
Belvidearis what I used to dress and titivate up for my shop window when I was in the hairdressing line, or smell quite so elegant as our rose-oil. From Wordnik.com. [Burlesques] Reference
But Cai -- on his way upstairs to titivate -- perceived that the lamp was lit and the cloth spread in his own parlour; and, as he noted this with a vague surprise, encountered Mrs Bowldler. From Wordnik.com. [Hocken and Hunken] Reference
“At his age, he doesn’t know how to put on a coat, one has to titivate him, I have missed my vocation, Brichot, I was born to be a nursery-maid.”. From Wordnik.com. [The Captive] Reference
It DID break too, and down I came into the slush; and when I got out of it, I can tell you I didn’t look much like the Venuses or the Apollor Belvidearis what I used to dress and titivate up for my shop window when I was in the hairdressing line, or smell quite so elegant as our rose-oil. From Wordnik.com. [Cox's Diary] Reference
Mount Street to titivate. From Wordnik.com. [Flowering Wilderness] Reference
"Well, I'll arrive in time for dinner, I'll titivate myself up, and down to drawin'-room, and whose the company that's to dine there?. From Wordnik.com. [The Attaché; or, Sam Slick in England — Complete] Reference
"Except when she ought," said his father; "but listen, Ned -- dress yourself up, get a buff waistcoat, a green jockey coat, a riding whip, and a pair o 'shinin' top-boots, titivate yourself up like a dandy, then go to her wid lavendher water on your pocket-handkerchy, an 'you'll see how she'll settle you. From Wordnik.com. [The Emigrants Of Ahadarra The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two] Reference
Last tip to titivate. From Wordnik.com. [Ulysses] Reference
Darius had told him to ` titivate himself, '. From Wordnik.com. [Clayhanger] Reference
To titivate the land. From Wordnik.com. [Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, August 4th, 1920] Reference
She'll want to titivate a little. ". From Wordnik.com. [Lalage's Lovers] Reference
You need to titivate your routine. ". From Wordnik.com. [happyrobot] Reference
Turns out "titivate" means "to smarten up," according to British-American translation. From Wordnik.com. [From Inside the Box] Reference
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