The Collaborative International Dictionary
Scrub \Scrub\ (skr[u^]b), n.
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One who labors hard and lives meanly; a mean fellow. ``A sorry scrub.''
--Bunyan.We should go there in as proper a manner as possible; nor altogether like the scrubs about us.
--Goldsmith. Something small and mean.
A worn-out brush.
--Ainsworth.A thicket or jungle, often specified by the name of the prevailing plant; as, oak scrub, palmetto scrub, etc.
(Stock Breeding) One of the common live stock of a region of no particular breed or not of pure breed, esp. when inferior in size, etc. [U.S.]
Vegetation of inferior quality, though sometimes thick and impenetrable, growing in poor soil or in sand; also, brush; -- called also scrub brush. See Brush, above.
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(Forestry) A low, straggling tree of inferior quality.
Scrub bird (Zo["o]l.), an Australian passerine bird of the family Atrichornithid[ae], as Atrichia clamosa; -- called also brush bird.
Scrub oak (Bot.), the popular name of several dwarfish species of oak. The scrub oak of New England and the Middle States is Quercus ilicifolia, a scraggy shrub; that of the Southern States is a small tree ( Q. Catesb[ae]i); that of the Rocky Mountain region is Q. undulata, var. Gambelii.
Scrub robin (Zo["o]l.), an Australian singing bird of the genus Drymodes.