Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

   2. To refresh; to revive. [Obs.] --Spenser.

   3. (Naut.) To relieve, as a rope, by change of place where
      friction wears it; or to renew, as the material used to
      prevent chafing; as, to freshen a hawse. -- Totten.

   {To freshen ballast} (Naut.), to shift Or restore it.

   {To freshen the hawse}, to pay out a little more cable, so as
      to bring the chafe on another part.

   {To freshen the way}, to increase the speed of a vessel.
      --Ham. Nav. Encyc.