Abrasion

//əˈbɹeɪ.ʒn̩// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of abrading, wearing, or rubbing off; the wearing away by friction. countable, uncountable

    "The metal surface showed signs of abrasion after years of use."

  2. 2
    the wearing down of rock particles by friction due to water or wind or ice wordnet
  3. 3
    An act of abrasiveness. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    erosion by friction wordnet
  5. 5
    The substance thus rubbed off; debris. countable, obsolete, uncountable
Show 5 more definitions
  1. 6
    an abraded area where the skin is torn or worn off wordnet
  2. 7
    The effect of mechanical erosion of rock, especially a river bed, by rock fragments scratching and scraping it. countable, uncountable
  3. 8
    An abraded, scraped, or worn area. countable, uncountable
  4. 9
    A superficial wound caused by scraping; an area of skin where the cells on the surface have been scraped or worn away. countable, uncountable

    "The doctor cleaned the small skin abrasion on her knee."

  5. 10
    The wearing away of the surface of the tooth by chewing. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
grindingablationabrasiveabstractionatomizationattrition

Example

More examples

"This ankle abrasion is still sore."

Etymology

First attested in 1656. From French abrasion (attested since 1611), from Medieval Latin abrasio (“a scraping”), from Latin abrādō (“scrape off”). See also abrade.

Related phrases

abrasion platform

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