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scrub
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
scrub
I.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
facial scrub
scrubbing brush
sweep/scrub sth clean (=use a brush to clean something)
▪ She quickly swept the floor clean.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
floor
▪ After she had swept the room, she scrubbed the floor.
▪ He had scrubbed the kitchen floor, cleaned the stove, and was sprinkling borax around the edges of the room.
▪ After she had scrubbed the floor, she polished the furniture.
▪ Before Easter, his wife will join the other neighborhood ladies for the traditional scrubbing of the church floors.
▪ Before she polished the furniture, she scrubbed the floor.
▪ I entered a hall crammed with low stretcher beds, placed row upon row on an antiseptic, scrubbed floor.
▪ Before she scrubbed the floor, she swept the room.
▪ A lawyer whose son was hospitalized with bulbar polio worked in the hospital kitchen scrubbing the floors.
kitchen
▪ He had scrubbed the kitchen floor, cleaned the stove, and was sprinkling borax around the edges of the room.
▪ At eleven it was understood that I washed the breakfast things and scrubbed the kitchen floor before I started my homework.
▪ The women polish the furniture, scrub the kitchen and weed the flowerbeds while Mrs McCormick is gone.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
Scrub the potatoes and boil them for 5-10 minutes.
Scrub the potatoes, then put them in a pan of boiling water.
▪ Lou was on her knees, scrubbing the kitchen floor.
▪ Martin washed the mud off his hands and scrubbed his nails.
▪ Part of my job was to wash the dishes and scrub the floors.
▪ The kitchen floor needs to be scrubbed and waxed.
▪ We haven't really got enough money for the trip -- let's just scrub it.
▪ Yesterday's shuttle launch was scrubbed just ten minutes before liftoff.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ After she had swept the room, she scrubbed the floor.
▪ Fabric boots should be scrubbed with clean water to remove the dirt and allowed to dry naturally.
▪ He had scrubbed the kitchen floor, cleaned the stove, and was sprinkling borax around the edges of the room.
▪ Launch attempts were scrubbed seconds before liftoff on Thursday and Friday because of technical glitches.
▪ My grandmother loved opera, and as she scrubbed the floor she would sing one aria or another.
▪ She was damp, she was sore from scrubbing with the shower mitt, her hair hung in rats' tails.
▪ The kids are all scrubbed and coiffed, backpacks fitted firmly on square shoulders.
▪ They made us scrub all the way through pregnancy as well, right up to the end.
II.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
give
▪ If it does need sanding, get this done and then give the scrub and wash treatment.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Christine reached the hut from the road by a steep track through the scrub and so avoided the house.
▪ Instead of the lake, my gaze rested upon a broken expanse of scrub.
▪ No one believed they would be scrubs, either.
▪ One outstanding local example was the Broyle in Ringmer, 2000 acres of scrub and clay mire, an old deer park.
▪ Single-brooded, some nightingales start the flight south - to tropical Savannah, or thorny scrub - at the end of July.
▪ There was nothing around them, just a bit of scrub in the distance.
▪ Try using fine sea salt as a scrub - this will help dry out blemishes naturally because it's slightly antiseptic.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Scrub

Scrub \Scrub\ (skr[u^]b), a. Mean; dirty; contemptible; scrubby.

How solitary, how scrub, does this town look!
--Walpole.

No little scrub joint shall come on my board.
--Swift.

Scrub game, a game, as of ball, by unpracticed players.

Scrub race, a race between scrubs, or between untrained animals or contestants.

Scrub

Scrub \Scrub\ (skr[u^]b), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Scrubbed (skr[u^]bd); p. pr. & vb. n. Scrubbing.] [OE. scrobben, probably of Dutch or Scand. origin; cf. Dan. skrubbe, Sw. skrubba, D. schrobben, LG. schrubben.] 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.

Scrub

Scrub \Scrub\ (skr[u^]b), v. i. To rub anything hard, especially with a wet brush; to scour; hence, to be diligent and penurious; as, to scrub hard for a living.

Scrub

Scrub \Scrub\ (skr[u^]b), n.

  1. 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.

  2. Something small and mean.

  3. A worn-out brush.
    --Ainsworth.

  4. A thicket or jungle, often specified by the name of the prevailing plant; as, oak scrub, palmetto scrub, etc.

  5. (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.]

  6. 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.

  7. (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.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
scrub

"rub hard," early 15c., earlier shrubben (c.1300), perhaps from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German schrubben "to scrub," or from an unrecorded Old English cognate, or from a Scandinavian source (such as Danish skrubbe "to scrub"), probably ultimately from the Proto-Germanic root of shrub, used as a cleaning tool (compare the evolution of broom, brush (n.1)).\n

\nMeaning "to cancel" is attested from 1828 (popularized during World War II with reference to flights), probably from notion of "to rub out, erase" an entry on a listing. Related: Scrubbed; scrubbing.

scrub

late 14c., "low, stunted tree," variant of shrobbe (see shrub), perhaps influenced by a Scandinavian word (such as Danish dialectal skrub "a stunted tree, brushwood"). Collective sense "brush, shrubs" is attested from 1805. As an adjective from 1710. Scrub oak recorded from 1766.\n

\nTransferred sense of "mean, insignificant fellow" is from 1580s; U.S. sports meaning "athlete not on the varsity team" is recorded from 1892, probably from this, but compare scrub "hard-working servant, drudge" (1709), perhaps from influence of scrub (v.).

scrub

"act of scrubbing," 1620s, from scrub (v.). Meaning "thing that is used in scrubbing" is from 1680s.

Wiktionary
scrub

Etymology 1

  1. mean; dirty; contemptible; scrubby. n. 1 One who labors hard and lives meanly; a mean fellow. 2 A worn-out brush. 3 One who is incompetent or unable to complete easy tasks. 4 A thicket or jungle, often specified by the name of the prevailing plant; as, oak '''scrub''', palmetto '''scrub''', etc. Etymology 2

    n. 1 An instance of scrubbing. 2 A cancellation. 3 A worn-out brush. 4 One who scrubs. 5 (context medicine in the plural English) Clothing worn while performing surgery. 6 An exfoliant for the body. v

  2. 1 (context transitive English) 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. 2 (context intransitive English) To rub anything hard, especially with a wet brush; to scour; 3 (context intransitive figuratively English) To be diligent and penurious; as, to '''scrub''' hard for a living. 4 (context transitive English) To call off a scheduled event; to cancel. 5 (context databases transitive English) To eliminate or to correct data from a set of records to bring it inline with other similar datasets 6 (context audio English) To move a recording tape back and forth with a scrubbing-like motion to produce a scratching sound, or to do so by a similar use of a control on an editing system. 7 (context audio video English) To maneuver the play position on a media editing system by using a scroll bar.

WordNet
scrub
  1. adj. (of domestic animals) not selectively bred

  2. [also: scrubbing, scrubbed]

scrub
  1. v. clean with hard rubbing; "She scrubbed his back" [syn: scour]

  2. wash thoroughly; "surgeons must scrub prior to an operation" [syn: scrub up]

  3. [also: scrubbing, scrubbed]

scrub
  1. n. dense vegetation consisting of stunted trees or bushes [syn: chaparral, bush]

  2. the act of cleaning a surface by rubbing it with a brush and soap and water [syn: scrubbing, scouring]

  3. [also: scrubbing, scrubbed]

Wikipedia
Scrub

Scrub(s) or Scrubber(s) may refer to:

  • Scrub, low shrub and grass characteristic of scrubland
  • Scrubs (clothing), worn by medical staff
  • Scrubs (TV series), an American television program
  • Scrubs (occupation), also called "scrub tech," "scrub nurse," or "surgical technologist"
  • Scrub baseball, also known as "scrub" or "scrubs", an informal game of baseball without teams
  • Scrubber, an industrial pollution control device usually installed on chimneys or air exhaust systems
  • Scrubber (brush), a wide brush for cleaning floors and hard surfaces
  • Scrubber, a name for a scullery maid or between maid
  • Scrubbing (audio), an interaction in which a playhead is dragged across a segment of audio to play it
  • Scrubbers, a 1983 film directed by Mai Zetterling
  • When the launch of a rocket, such as the Space Shuttle, is postponed (scrubbed) due to weather or problems.

Usage examples of "scrub".

The ferret was nosing around the front wheel Jake Ambler had so carefully scrubbed down, looking like it was about ready to lift its leg, if ferrets do that.

The luckless shaven-haired monkey or rat, guinea pig or dog bent on renouncing the laboratory world for ever found itself opening its eyes on it once more from the antiseptically scrubbed floor of its cage, its drinking vessel freshly charged, its dressings ingeniously barred from investigation, its recovery a command - even, if necessary, its benefactor would minister long hours overtime to make sure it was carried out.

Barnacle had naturally tried to bite the hand that scrubbed him, he had meanly interposed the brush, so Barnacle had broken a tooth.

In the hallway I pulled off the pasteboard mask, moistened a piece of cotton in the benzine and scrubbed off the bits of adhesive which had stuck to my face and forehead.

In the end, she dismounted, looping the reins over the branches of a clump of scrub in case Bounder had plans of his own.

They rode several miles to a little lake and a scrub of brigalow, and, dismounting, soon had exciting sport.

Targinie bull when he was making straight for a brigalow scrub, as try to turn the mind of Robina Daring.

Behind rose the grey-brown dunes of the Island, and close to the shore was a ragged brigalow scrub.

But Buli the Whirlwind--for he it was who made the warriors and their gins to run fast through the scrub, who laid low the brigalow trees, and carved spears therefrom, who with his weapons of war swept like a tempest over the herds of white men, and killed the white men in the camps they had made, therefore was he named the Whirlwind--he, Whirlwind, would swear now before the sister of the Pleiades, Cloud-Daughter, that he and his warriors, old men, and gins, would obey the word of Cloud-Daughter till, after many days marching through the scrubs, they should reach Maianbar the Deep Tank.

There was Aylward squatting cross-legged in his shirt, while he scrubbed away at his chain-mail brigandine, whistling loudly the while.

David Silver was a plump young man with a pink scrubbed complexion, gold-rimmed pince-nez and his hair glossy with brilliantine and parted down the centre so that his scalp gleamed in the division like the scar of a sword cut He deferred courteously to his Uncle Aaron, and went to pains to make certain that both his guests were comfortable, that their chairs were arranged with the light from the windows falling from behind and that each of them had an ashtray beside him and a cup of tea in his hand.

Up the slope of the mountain the scrub is less, and massed burrawangs hang out their fronds as if to repel the wanderer.

I ran through the hootch, slamming open the back screen door, Mai was there, squatting in the Vietnamese fashion, scrubbing at a wet flight suit with one hand.

In the smoggy gloaming, he went through the brickwork warrens of Griss Fell, past householders scrubbing their porches of the grit of machinofacture and graffitied coils, chatting from window to window across the little streets.

I remember he had a fight with a little bull-calf, about a week old, that came in with a wild heifer, and Aileen made as much of his pluck as if it had been a mallee scrubber.