Definition of "scrub"

scrub¹

/skɹʌb/

adjective
comparative more scrub, superlative most scrub
1. Mean; dirty; contemptible; scrubby.
  Quotations
  How solitary, how scrub, does this town look!
  1743, Horace Walpole, letter to Sir Horace Mann
  No little scrub joint shall come on my board.
  1729, Jonathan Swift, The Grand Question Debated of Hamilton's Bawn
noun
plural scrubs
1. One who labors hard and lives meanly; a mean fellow.
  Quotations
  A sorry scrub, said Mr. High-mind.
  1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress
  We should go there in as proper a manner possible; nor altogether like the scrubs about us.
  1766, Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield
  A scrub is a guy that thinks he's flyAnd is also known as a busterAlways talkin' about what he wantsAnd just sits on his broke ass […]
  1999, TLC (band), "No Scrubs" (song)
2. One who is incompetent or unable to complete easy tasks.
3. A thicket or jungle, often specified by the name of the prevailing plant
  Quotations
  I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.
  1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
4. (US, stock breeding) One of the common livestock of a region of no particular breed or not of pure breed, especially when inferior in size, etc. Often used to refer to male animals unsuited for breeding.
5. Vegetation of inferior quality, though sometimes thick and impenetrable, growing in poor soil or in sand; also, brush.
6. (sports) One not on the first team of players; a substitute.
7. (slang, online gaming) A player who whines when outmatched by other players, sometimes by blaming the game mechanics or even accusing the other players of cheating.
8. (obsolete, slang) Informal attire or dress code; morning dress
  Quotations
  The third, which was as homely as its name, and which she reserved for scouring the country and such like rough usage in quite private rural life, was her "Scrub."
  1876, “Hightum, Titum, and Scrub!”, in The Leisure Hour‎
  For one of Lucia's quaint ideas was to divide dresses into three classes, "Hightum," "Tightum" and "Scrub."
  1920, E. F. Benson, Queen Lucia‎

scrub²

/skɹʌb/

verb
third-person singular simple present scrubs, present participle scrubbing, simple past and past participle scrubbed
1. (transitive) To rub hard; to wash with rubbing; usually, to rub with a wet brush, or with something coarse or rough, for the purpose of cleaning or brightening
2. (intransitive) To rub anything hard, especially with a wet brush; to scour
3. (intransitive, figuratively) To be diligent and penurious
4. (transitive) To call off a scheduled event; to cancel.
5. (databases, transitive) To eliminate or to correct data from a set of records to bring it inline with other similar datasets
6. (audio) To move a recording tape back and forth with a scrubbing motion to produce a scratching sound, or to do so by a similar use of a control on an editing system.
7. (audio, video) To maneuver the play position on a media editing system by using a scroll bar or touch-based interface.
noun
plural scrubs
1. An instance of scrubbing.
2. A cancellation.
  Quotations
  Unacceptable winds aloft caused four scrubs and one hold; adverse weather caused a scrub; […]
  1988, AIAA 26th Aerospace Sciences Meeting: January 11-14
3. A worn-out brush.
  Quotations
  A scrub [broom worn out] Scopa detrita.
  1752, Robert Ainsworth, Thesaurus Linguae Latinae Compendiarius
4. One who scrubs.
5. That which scrubs.
  1. An exfoliant for the body.
6. (medicine, in the plural) Clothing worn while performing surgery.
7. (by extension, in the plural) Any medical uniform consisting of a short-sleeved shirt and pants (trousers).
  Quotations
  A man dressed as a lab tech, his blue scrubs startlingly pale against the vivid red and black chaos, moved into sight from behind the SUV. He carried an assault rifle.
  2014, Jeff Jacobson, Growth, page 23