rub — English Dictionary

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Language

rub

Pronunciations (4)

Noun

An act of rubbing.

Examples

Give that lamp a good rub and see if any genies come out.
A difficulty or problem.

Examples

More examples (3)

To die, to sleep— / To sleep—perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub! / For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, / When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, / Must give us pause

[…] the propriety of the cabman's shelter, as it was called, hardly a stonesthrow away near Butt bridge where they might hit upon some drinkables in the shape of a milk and soda or a mineral. But how to get there was the rub.

'My dear Devereux, I say, you mustn't talk in that wild way. You—you talk like a ruined man!' 'And I so comfortable!' 'Why, to be sure, Dick, you have had some little rubs, and, maybe, your follies and your vexations; but, hang it, you are young; you can't get experience—at least, so I've found it—without paying for it. […]'
A quip or sarcastic remark.
Usage
- Archaic
In the game of crown green bowls, any obstacle by which a bowl is diverted from its normal course.
Any substance designed to be applied by rubbing.

Examples

a heat rub intended for muscular strains
Any substance designed to be applied by rubbing. A mixture of spices applied to meat before it is barbecued.
A loan.
Usage
- UK usage
- Slang

To move (one object) while maintaining contact with another object over some area, with pressure and friction.
Usage
- Transitive
Examples

I rubbed the cloth over the glass.

The cat rubbed itself against my leg.

More examples (4)

I rubbed my hands together for warmth.

I couldn't rub the stain from the tablecloth.

You ſhould rub your Teeth and whole Mouth and Gums, the Pallate and Tongue, with a clean courſe cloth, rubbing off the ſlime which groweth upon them in the night.

[…] Walden rubbed his hands together and smiled contentedly.
To be rubbed against something.
Usage
- Intransitive
Examples

My shoes are beginning to rub.
To spread a substance thinly over; to smear.
Usage
- Transitive
Examples

meat rubbed with spices before barbecuing

The smoothed plank, […] / New rubbed with balm.
To move or pass with difficulty.
Usage
- Dated
Examples

to rub through woods, as huntsmen
To scour; to burnish; to polish; to brighten; to cleanse; often with up or over.

Examples

to rub up silver

The whole business of our redemption is, in short, only to rub over the defaced copy of the creation
To hinder; to cross; to thwart.

Examples

'Tis the duke's pleasure, / Whose disposition, all the world well knows, / Will not be rubbed nor stopped.
To touch the jack with the bowl.
Usage
- Transitive

Word forms

rubsrubsrubbingrubbedrubbed