rub up
See also: rub-up
English
editVerb
editrub up (third-person singular simple present rubs up, present participle rubbing up, simple past and past participle rubbed up)
- (transitive) To polish or scrub; to cover (something with a substance) by rubbing.
- I rubbed up the brass buttons on my jacket to make them shine.
- The pitcher rubs up the new baseball with dirt to get a better grip.
- 1695, William Salmon, The Family Dictionary[1], London: H. Rhodes:
- Stains that come not by Grease are taken out by boiling Lemon-peel in Small-beer, with a little Copperas, till it be very strong of them: then with a hard Brush rub up the place with it,
- 1786, John O’Keeffe, Patrick in Russia[2], Dublin, act I, page 11:
- Here’s a new guest for you; so clean up your house, rub up the mohogany table […]
- 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter VIII, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 183:
- […] my next [aim was] to rub it [Moor-House] up with beeswax, oil, and an indefinite number of cloths, till it glitters again;
- 1909 September, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “A Wedding at the Stone House”, in Anne of Avonlea, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, →OCLC, page 360:
- [T]here’s all the silver to be rubbed up yet […]
- (transitive) To rub (a body part): to massage, give a massage to.
- 1674, Hannah Woolley, A Supplement to The Queen-like Closet[3], London: Richard Lownds, page 9:
- […] every Morning when you Comb your head, dip a sponge in this water and rub up your Hair, and it will keep it clean and preserve it,
- 1929, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 9, in Red Harvest[4], New York, N.Y.: Knopf:
- Bush’s handlers dragged him into his corner [of the boxing ring] and rubbed him up, not working very hard at it.
- (transitive) To create (something) by rubbing.
- to rub up a lather
- The new shoe rubbed up a blister on the back of his foot.
- (transitive, intransitive, informal, dated) To revive one's knowledge of (something); to renew (a skill).
- 1775 January 17 (first performance), [Richard Brinsley Sheridan], The Rivals, a Comedy. […], London: […] John Wilkie, […], published 1775, →OCLC, Act III, scene [iv], page 54:
- I muſt rub up my balancing, and chaſing, and boring.
- 1915 October 18, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “The Little Governess”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 239:
- [Y]ou will have a nice quiet day to rest after the journey and rub up your German.
- 1951, Nicholas Monsarrat, The Cruel Sea[5], New York, N.Y.: Knopf, Part 5, p. 364:
- [Y]ou'll have to rub up on the other sort of navigation now. How long is it since you used a sextant?
- (transitive, US, slang) To assault (someone).[1]
- Synonym: rough up
- 1952, Chester Himes, chapter 11, in Cast the First Stone,[6], New York, N.Y.: Signet, page 107:
- There was a lot of yelling and gesticulating, and a few blows were passed. A couple of guards got rubbed up a little.
- (transitive, obsolete) To reduce (something) to a powder or paste using friction (with a mortar and pestle, for example); to mix (with something) using friction.
- to rub up pigments with water or oil
- 1697, William Dampier, chapter III, in A New Voyage Round the World. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, page 60:
- [T]hose Europeans, that use their Chocolate ready rubb’d up […]
- 1843, J. Hewlett, chapter 23, in College Life; or, The Proctor’s Notebook,[7], volume 1, London: Henry Colburn, page 253:
- [The bursar] poured out a glass of sherry into a tumbler, and rubbed it up with an egg and a little sugar.
- 1943, Charles Wortham Brook, Carlile and the Surgeons[8], Glasgow: Strickland Press, page 23:
- [Crude mercury] may be concealed in a pill by rubbing it up with anything of which you can make a paste fit for pills;
- (transitive, obsolete) To excite or awaken (something); to revive or reawaken (something).
- to rub up the memory; to rub up old sores
- 1640, James Ussher, Eighteen Sermons Preached in Oxford[9], London, published 1660, page 128:
- They desire a dead Minister, that would not rub up their consciences,
- 1681, Thomas Manton, One Hundred and Ninety Sermons on the Hundred and Nineteenth Psalm[10], London: T. P., Sermon 102, p. 629:
- It’s a vexation to them when they would sleep securely, to have their consciences rubbing up and reviving their fears.
- 1702, Susanna Centlivre, The Beau’s Duel[11], London: D. Brown and N. Cox, act III, page 30:
- Sir Will. What do you mean Gentlemen? / Emil. Only to rub up you[r] Courage a little.
- 1790, Tate Wilkinson, Memoirs of His Own Life[12], volume 2, York, N.Y., page 134:
- [L]est I should be negligent, Mr. Garrick sent for me to rub up my attention, fearing I might like a lazy centinel sleep on my post:
See also
editNoun
edit- Alternative form of rub-up
References
edit- ^ Tom Dalzell (ed.), The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English, 2008.
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- en:Massage