brush away

English

Verb

brush away (third-person singular simple present brushes away, present participle brushing away, simple past and past participle brushed away)

1. Rare form of brush aside.
   • 1951 October, “Preventing Rail Corrosion”, in Railway Magazine, page 648:

     Recently the Great Northern Railway, U,S.A., which has a considerable mileage of line bordering the Pacific seaboard, has put in service mobile equipment for applying anti-corrosion treatment to rails. An old motor-car has been adapted to carry two oxy-acetylene flame-cleaning heads, which simultaneously clean both sides of both rails of all mill-scale and rust as the car is hand-propelled forward; men follow to brush away the loosened material; the final operation is that of spraying both rails, by means of paint guns carried on a trolley, with a corrosion-resisting compound.