scrub
/skɹʌb/ adjective, noun, verb
Also a form of scrubs
Forms scrubs scrubbing scrubbed
- adjective (obsolete) Mean; dirty; contemptible; scrubby.
- noun (uncountable) A thicket or jungle, often specified by the name of the prevailing plant. “oak scrub”
- noun (uncountable) Vegetation judged to be of inferior quality or of little use to humans, though sometimes thick and impenetrable, growing in poor soil or in sand; also, brush.
- noun (countable, 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.; particularly a male animal poorly suited for breeding.
- noun (countable, derogatory) One who labors hard and lives meanly.
- noun (countable, slang, derogatory) One who is incompetent or unable to complete easy tasks. “Wow, she really scored 0? What a scrub!”
- noun (countable, sports, slang) One not on the first team of players; a substitute.
- noun (countable, online gaming, slang, derogatory) A player who whines when outmatched by other players, sometimes by blaming the game mechanics or even accusing the other players of cheating.
- verb (transitive) To rub hard; to wash with rubbing; usually, to rub with a wet brush, sponge or with something coarse or rough, for the purpose of cleaning or brightening. “to scrub a floor with a cleanser”
- verb (intransitive) To rub anything vigorously, especially with a wet brush; to scour. “She has been scrubbing for an hour, but the stain won't come out.”
- verb (intransitive) Synonym of scrub in (“To thoroughly wash one's hands and forearms in preparation for performing a surgery”). “The surgeon readied himself, dressing, scrubbing and checking his notes for the next patient.”
- verb (intransitive, figuratively) To be diligent and penurious. “I've had to scrub hard for a living”
- verb (transitive) To eliminate or remove (something); to render (something) unretrievable. “I will scrub the inefficiencies out of the system.”
- verb (transitive) To call off (a scheduled event); to cancel (something). “Engineers had to scrub the satellite launch due to bad weather.”
- verb (transitive, finance, auditing) To check data in invoices and other records in order to find, fix, document or otherwise handle anomalies, errors or omissions. “Scrub the billing files.”
- verb (law) To study in great detail a contract or other agreement in order to identify and remove risks, liability or other issues.
- noun An instance of scrubbing.
- noun A cancellation.
- noun A worn-out brush.
- noun One who scrubs.
Synonyms
clean rub scour wash scrub in seek chaparral bush scrubbing scouring scrub up cancel call off scratch
Etymology
Late Middle English shrobbe in the sense of "stunted tree," a variant of shrub, from Old English scrybb. Doublet of shrub.
From Middle English scrobben (“groom a horse with a currycomb”); from Middle Dutch schrobben (“clean by scrubbing”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb 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; as, to scrub a floor, a doorplate.
- verb To rub anything hard, especially with a wet brush; to scour; hence, to be diligent and penurious; as, to scrub hard for a living.
- noun One who labors hard and lives meanly; a mean fellow. "A sorry scrub." Bunyan.
- noun Something small and mean.
Etymology [OE. scrobben, probably of Dutch or Scand. origin; cf. Dan. sckrubbe, Sw. skrubba, D. schrobben, LG. schrubben.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “scrub”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details