Wiktionary
n. A scouring pad used for cleaning dishes made from steel wool containing soap.
Wikipedia
Brillo Pad is a trade name for a scouring pad, used for cleaning dishes, and made from steel wool impregnated with soap. The concept was patented in 1913. The company's website states the name Brillo is from the Latin word for 'bright', though no such word exists in Latin; In Spanish the word "brillo" means the noun "shine", however, German, Italian, French, English do have words for 'shine' or 'bright' beginning with brill- deriving from Latin words for beryl.
It came at a time when aluminium pots and pans were replacing cast iron in the kitchen. Easily blackened by coal fires, the shine of the cookware didn't last long.
Usage examples of "brillo pad".
Compared to these sheep, that ram of yours might as well be a brillo pad with legs.
By the next day, she no longer had Brillo Pad hair or straight hair either, which had been the hoped-for result.
It was more matted and wiry than straight, but it didn't look like a Brillo Pad.
She looked like somebody had scrubbed parts of her face with a Brillo pad, and her nose wasn't as straight as it once had been, but she no longer looked like she might die.
When they finished eating she took the plates to the sink and washed them, and used a Brillo pad on the gooey skillet.
He didn't look a day over forty, his hair was like a tailored Brillo pad and his face tanned.
Gerde had not washed her yet, and her skin was crusty with blackish-red blood, her hair stiff with it like a Brillo pad.
The remaining hominid was a male, his penis a mere nub in the Brillo pad of his pubic hair, his scrotum as round and intricately puckered as a rotten grapefruit.
But, hey, listen, like a Brillo pad, that's what's got to be a mother's heart.
To give his hands something to do he went into the kitchen and cleaned the burners with a wet Brillo pad.
Kris would have welcomed a Brillo pad, which was what the pod felt like.