Rub

//ɹʌb// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An act of rubbing.

    "Give that lamp a good rub and see if any genies come out."

  2. 2
    Any of a group of proteins similar to ubiquitin
  3. 3
    the act of rubbing or wiping wordnet
  4. 4
    A difficulty or problem.

    "To die, to sleep— / To sleep—perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub! / For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, / When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, / Must give us pause"

  5. 5
    Initialism of rich urban biker. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    an unforeseen obstacle wordnet
  2. 7
    A quip or sarcastic remark. archaic
  3. 8
    In the game of crown green bowls, any obstacle by which a bowl is diverted from its normal course.
  4. 9
    Any substance designed to be applied by rubbing.

    "a heat rub intended for muscular strains"

  5. 10
    Any substance designed to be applied by rubbing.; A mixture of spices applied to meat before it is barbecued.
  6. 11
    A loan. UK, slang
Verb
  1. 1
    To move (one object) while maintaining contact with another object over some area, with pressure and friction. transitive

    "I rubbed the cloth over the glass."

  2. 2
    move over something with pressure wordnet
  3. 3
    To be rubbed against something. intransitive

    "My shoes are beginning to rub."

  4. 4
    cause friction wordnet
  5. 5
    To spread a substance thinly over; to smear. transitive

    "meat rubbed with spices before barbecuing"

Show 5 more definitions
  1. 6
    scrape or rub as if to relieve itching wordnet
  2. 7
    To move or pass with difficulty. dated

    "to rub through woods, as huntsmen"

  3. 8
    To scour; to burnish; to polish; to brighten; to cleanse; often with up or over.

    "to rub up silver"

  4. 9
    To hinder; to cross; to thwart.

    "'Tis the duke's pleasure, / Whose disposition, all the world well knows, / Will not be rubbed nor stopped."

  5. 10
    To touch the jack with the bowl. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
hitchhitchsnagablateabradeabrase

Example

More examples

"During prohibition days, racketeers used to rub each other out to get control of the rum-running racket."

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English rubben, of unknown origin; possibly ultimately from Proto-Germanic *rubbōną, related to *reufaną (“to tear”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian rubje (“to rub, scrape”), German Low German rubben (“to rub”), Low German rubblig (“rough, uneven”), Dutch robben, rubben (“to rub smooth; scrape; scrub”), Danish rubbe (“to rub, scrub”), Icelandic and Norwegian rubba (“to scrape”). More at reave. Compare typologically Latin fricō < friō < Proto-Indo-European *bʰreyH- (whence also Russian брить (britʹ, “to shave”)).

Related phrases

Dutch rubMartindale rub testPrinceton rubchest rubchub rubhand rubheat rubrub alongrub and tugrub awayrub boardrub down

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