Rub

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ɹʌb/, ɹɐb, enPR: rÅ­b
• US IPA: /ɹʌb/, enPR: rÅ­b
• Rhymes: -ÊŒb

Origin

From Middle English rubben. Cognate with Saterland Frisian rubje ("to rub, scrape"), Low German rubblig ("rough, uneven"), Icelandic and Norwegian rubba ("to scrape"), Danish rubbe ("to rub, scrub").

Full definition of rub

Noun

1. An act of rubbing.Give that lamp a good rub and see if any genies come out
2. A difficulty or problem.Therein lies the rub.
• Shakespeare Hamlet III.i.71-75To 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
• Joyce Ulysses, Episode 16...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.
3. In the game of crown green bowls: any obstacle by which a bowl is diverted from its normal course.
4. A mixture of spices applied to meat before it is barbecued.

Verb

1. (transitive) To move (one object) while maintaining contact with another object over some area, with pressure and friction.
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 7, “… This is Mr. Churchill, who, as you are aware, is good enough to come to us for his diaconate, and, as we hope, for much longer; and being a gentleman of independent means, he declines to take any payment.” Saying this Walden rubbed his hands together and smiled contentedly.
2. I rubbed the cloth over the glass.
   The cat rubbed itself against my leg.
   I rubbed my hands together for warmth.
3. (transitive) To rub something against (a second thing).
   I rubbed the glass with the cloth.
• Sir T. ElyotIt shall be expedient, after that body is cleaned, to rub the body with a coarse linen cloth.
4. (intransitive) To be rubbed against something.
   My shoes are beginning to rub.
5. (transitive) To spread a substance thinly over; to smear.meat rubbed with spices before barbecuing
• MiltonThe smoothed plank, ...
  New rubbed with balm.
6. (dated) To move or pass with difficulty.
   to rub through woods, as huntsmen
7. To scour; to burnish; to polish; to brighten; to cleanse; often with up or over.to rub up silver
• SouthThe whole business of our redemption is to rub over the defaced copy of the creation.
8. To hinder; to cross; to thwart.
• Shakespeare'Tis the duke's pleasure,
  Whose disposition, all the world well knows,
  Will not be rubbed nor stopped.

Derived terms

Anagrams

• bur