Definition of "rub"

rub

/ɹʌb/

noun
plural rubs
1. An act of rubbing.
2. A difficulty or problem.
  Quotations
  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
  c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene i]
  […] 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.
  1922 February, James Joyce, “Episode 16”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […]
  '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. […] '
  1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard
3. (archaic) A quip or sarcastic remark.
4. In the game of crown green bowls, any obstacle by which a bowl is diverted from its normal course.
5. Any substance designed to be applied by rubbing.
  1. A mixture of spices applied to meat before it is barbecued.
6. (UK, naval slang) A loan.
verb
third-person singular simple present rubs, present participle rubbing, simple past and past participle rubbed
1. (transitive) To move (one object) while maintaining contact with another object over some area, with pressure and friction.
  Quotations
  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.
  1680, T. K., The Kitchin-Phyſician; Or, a Guide for Good-Housewives in Maintaining Their Families in Health. […] ‎, How to cleanſe the Teeth, and keep them ſound, page 44
  […] Walden rubbed his hands together and smiled contentedly.
  1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
2. (intransitive) To be rubbed against something.
3. (transitive) To spread a substance thinly over; to smear.
  Quotations
  The smoothed plank, […] / New rubbed with balm.
  1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
4. (dated) To move or pass with difficulty.
5. To scour; to burnish; to polish; to brighten; to cleanse; often with up or over.
  Quotations
  The whole business of our redemption is, in short, only to rub over the defaced copy of the creation
  a. 1716, Robert South, Man Created in God's Image
6. To hinder; to cross; to thwart.
  Quotations
  'Tis the duke's pleasure, / Whose disposition, all the world well knows, / Will not be rubbed nor stopped.
  c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii]
7. (transitive, bowls) To touch the jack with the bowl.

Definition of "rub"

rub

noun

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verb

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