Rubbing

//ˈɹʌbɪŋ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An impression of an embossed or incised surface made by placing a piece of paper over it and rubbing with graphite, crayon or other coloring agent.

    "He was delighted to come across a little-worn crest of the old Great Eastern Railway, never dreaming that such a relic would still be in use, and was taking a pencil-rubbing to add to his collection."

  2. 2
    effort expended in moving one object over another with pressure wordnet
  3. 3
    representation consisting of a copy (as of an engraving) made by laying paper over something and rubbing it with charcoal wordnet
  4. 4
    the resistance encountered when one body is moved in contact with another wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of rub form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms
frictionapographbrushingcarboncarbon copycaressing

Example

More examples

"Cut that out. You're just rubbing salt in the poor guy's wounds."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English rubbinge, rubbynge, equivalent to rub + -ing.

Etymology 2

From rub + -ing.

Related phrases

beach rubbingbrass rubbingrubbing alcoholrubbing machinerubbing offrubbing oilrubbing postrubbing stonerubbing strip

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