rub
Noun:
- The act of rubbing: The action of moving one's hand or an object back and forth against a surface, often with pressure.
- An obstacle or difficulty: A hindrance or a point of contention, often used in the phrase "there's the rub."
Verb:
- To move one's hand or an object back and forth on a surface: To apply friction, pressure, or a circular motion, often to clean, polish, soothe, or apply a substance.
- To cause friction or chafe: To scrape or grate against something, often causing irritation or wear.
- To erase or remove by friction: To eliminate a mark by rubbing over it.
Noun:
- He gave the table a quick rub with a cloth to remove the dust.
- The plan is good, but funding is the rub. (Here, 'the rub' means the main difficulty.)
Verb:
- She will rub the lotion into her skin.
- My new shoes rub against my heel and cause blisters.
- You can rub out the pencil marks with an eraser.
"to rub it in": To emphasize or remind someone of something unpleasant, especially a mistake or failure, in a way that annoys them.
- I know I lost the game; you don't have to rub it in.
"to rub shoulders/elbows with someone": To meet and spend time with famous or important people, often in a social context.
- At the conference, she got to rub elbows with several industry leaders.
"to rub someone up the wrong way": To irritate or annoy someone, often unintentionally, by one's manner or actions.
- His arrogant attitude tends to rub people up the wrong way.
Rubber (n): 1. An elastic material. 2. A tool or object used for rubbing, such as an eraser.
- Use a rubber to correct your mistake.
Rubbing (n): 1. The action of the verb 'to rub'. 2. An impression of a raised design, made by placing paper over it and rubbing with a pencil or crayon.
- She made a rubbing of the ancient tombstone.
Rubdown (n): An act of rubbing someone's body, as in a massage or after exercise.
- The athlete got a rubdown after the race.
- Scrub: To rub hard in order to clean.
- Polish: To rub a surface to make it smooth and shiny.
- Chafe: To rub in a way that causes soreness or irritation.
- Massage: To rub and knead muscles with the hands.
Rub along: To manage or cope, especially in a difficult situation, or to have a reasonably harmonious relationship.
- They don't always agree, but they rub along well enough.
Rub down: To dry, clean, or smooth something (or someone) by rubbing; to give a massage.
- Rub the horse down after your ride.
Rub off (on): 1. To be removed by rubbing. 2. (Of a quality or characteristic) To be transferred to someone through close association.
- The mud will rub off easily when it dries.
- Her enthusiasm for reading rubbed off on her younger brother.
Rub out: To erase or remove something by rubbing; (slang) to kill or eliminate.
- He rubbed out the wrong answer.
There's the rub: This is the problem or difficulty. (From Shakespeare's Hamlet).
- I'd love to travel, but there's the rub—I have no money.
Rub salt into the wound: To make a bad situation even worse for someone.
- Losing the match was bad enough, but their mocking comments just rubbed salt into the wound.
- the act of rubbing or wiping
- he gave the hood a quick rub
- an unforeseen obstacle
- scrape or rub as if to relieve itching
- Don't scratch your insect bites!
- cause friction
- my sweater scratches
- move over something with pressure
- rub my hands
- rub oil into her skin