The Collaborative International Dictionary
Rub \Rub\, n. [Cf. W. rhwb. See Rub, v,t,]
The act of rubbing; friction.
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That which rubs; that which tends to hinder or obstruct motion or progress; hindrance; obstruction, an impediment; especially, a difficulty or obstruction hard to overcome; a pinch.
Every rub is smoothed on our way.
--Shak.To sleep, perchance to dream; ay, there's the rub.
--Shak.Upon this rub, the English ambassadors thought fit to demur.
--Hayward.One knows not, certainly, what other rubs might have been ordained for us by a wise Providence.
--W. Besant. Inequality of surface, as of the ground in the game of bowls; unevenness.
--Shak.Something grating to the feelings; sarcasm; joke; as, a hard rub.
Imperfection; failing; fault. [Obs.]
--Beau. & Fl.-
A chance. [Obs.]
Flight shall leave no Greek a rub.
--Chapman. -
A stone, commonly flat, used to sharpen cutting tools; a whetstone; -- called also rubstone.
Rub iron, an iron guard on a wagon body, against which a wheel rubs when cramped too much.
Rub of the green (Golf), anything happening to a ball in motion, such as its being deflected or stopped by any agency outside the match, or by the fore caddie.
Wiktionary
n. A stone for scouring or rubbing; a whetstone.