Abrade

//əˈbɹeɪd// verb

verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To rub or wear off; erode. transitive

    "“Wildcat Ridge” is the name given to a rock about 3 feet (1 meter) wide that likely formed billions of years ago as mud and fine sand settled in an evaporating saltwater lake. On July 20, the rover abraded some of the surface of Wildcat Ridge so it could analyze the area with the instrument called Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals, or SHERLOC."

  2. 2
    Obsolete spelling of abraid. alt-of, obsolete, transitive
  3. 3
    rub hard or scrub wordnet
  4. 4
    To wear down or exhaust, as a person; irritate. transitive
  5. 5
    wear away wordnet
Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    To irritate by rubbing; chafe. transitive
  2. 7
    To cause the surface to become more rough. transitive
  3. 8
    To undergo abrasion. intransitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
rub offscourabateablateabraseabrase

Example

More examples

"The rough pumice can abrade the skin."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Latin abrādō (“scrape off”), from ab (“from, away from”) + rādō (“scrape”). First attested in 1677.

Etymology 2

From Middle English abraiden. See abraid.

Related phrases

rub offwear off

More for "abrade"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.