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rub up

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: rub-up

English

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Verb

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rub up (third-person singular simple present rubs up, present participle rubbing up, simple past and past participle rubbed up)

  1. (transitive) To polish or scrub; to cover (something with a substance) by rubbing.
    I rubbed up the brass buttons on my jacket to make them shine.
    The pitcher rubs up the new baseball with dirt to get a better grip.
  2. (transitive) To rub (a body part): to massage, give a massage to.
    • 1674, Hannah Woolley, A Supplement to The Queen-like Closet‎[3], London: Richard Lownds, page 9:
      […] every Morning when you Comb your head, dip a sponge in this water and rub up your Hair, and it will keep it clean and preserve it,
    • 1929, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 9, in Red Harvest‎[4], New York, N.Y.: Knopf:
      Bush’s handlers dragged him into his corner [of the boxing ring] and rubbed him up, not working very hard at it.
  3. (transitive) To create (something) by rubbing.
    to rub up a lather
    The new shoe rubbed up a blister on the back of his foot.
  4. (transitive, intransitive, informal, dated) To revive one's knowledge of (something); to renew (a skill).
    Synonyms: bone up, brush up, review, revise
  5. (transitive, US, slang) To assault (someone).[1]
    Synonym: rough up
    • 1952, Chester Himes, chapter 11, in Cast the First Stone,‎[6], New York, N.Y.: Signet, page 107:
      There was a lot of yelling and gesticulating, and a few blows were passed. A couple of guards got rubbed up a little.
  6. (transitive, obsolete) To reduce (something) to a powder or paste using friction (with a mortar and pestle, for example); to mix (with something) using friction.
    to rub up pigments with water or oil
    • 1697, William Dampier, chapter III, in A New Voyage Round the World. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, page 60:
      [T]hose Europeans, that use their Chocolate ready rubb’d up […]
    • 1843, J. Hewlett, chapter 23, in College Life; or, The Proctor’s Notebook,‎[7], volume 1, London: Henry Colburn, page 253:
      [The bursar] poured out a glass of sherry into a tumbler, and rubbed it up with an egg and a little sugar.
    • 1943, Charles Wortham Brook, Carlile and the Surgeons‎[8], Glasgow: Strickland Press, page 23:
      [Crude mercury] may be concealed in a pill by rubbing it up with anything of which you can make a paste fit for pills;
  7. (transitive, obsolete) To excite or awaken (something); to revive or reawaken (something).
    to rub up the memory; to rub up old sores
    • 1640, James Ussher, Eighteen Sermons Preached in Oxford‎[9], London, published 1660, page 128:
      They desire a dead Minister, that would not rub up their consciences,
    • 1681, Thomas Manton, One Hundred and Ninety Sermons on the Hundred and Nineteenth Psalm‎[10], London: T. P., Sermon 102, p. 629:
      It’s a vexation to them when they would sleep securely, to have their consciences rubbing up and reviving their fears.
    • 1702, Susanna Centlivre, The Beau’s Duel‎[11], London: D. Brown and N. Cox, act III, page 30:
      Sir Will. What do you mean Gentlemen? / Emil. Only to rub up you[r] Courage a little.
    • 1790, Tate Wilkinson, Memoirs of His Own Life‎[12], volume 2, York, N.Y., page 134:
      [L]est I should be negligent, Mr. Garrick sent for me to rub up my attention, fearing I might like a lazy centinel sleep on my post:

See also

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Noun

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rub up (plural rub ups)

  1. Alternative form of rub-up

References

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  1. ^ Tom Dalzell (ed.), The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English, 2008.
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