rub

English

Etymology

From Middle English rubben. Cognate with Eastern Frisian rubben (“to rub, scrape”), Low German rubbeling (“rough, uneven”), Icelandic and Norwegian rubba (“to scrape”), Danish rubbe (“to rub, scrub”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: rŭb, IPA: /rʌb/, SAMPA: /rVb/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌb

Noun

rub (plural rubs)

1. An act of rubbing.

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

2. A difficulty or problem.

   Therein lies the rub.

   • 1594, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark III.i.71-75

     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

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses Episode 16

     ...the propriety of the cabman's shelter, as it was called, hardly a stonesthrow away near Butt bridge where they might hit upon some drinkables in the shape of a milk and soda or a mineral. But how to get there was the rub.

3. In the game of crown green bowls: any obstacle by which a bowl is diverted from its normal course.
4. A mixture of spices applied to meat before it is barbecued.

Translations

• Finnish: hankaus
• Greek: τρίψιμο (el) (trípsimo) n.
• Portuguese: fricção f.
• Turkish: ovma, ovalama

Verb

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

1. To move one object while maintaining contact with another object over some area.

   I rubbed the cloth over the glass.

   The cat rubbed itself against my leg.

   I rubbed my hands together for warmth.

2. To rub something against.

   I rubbed the glass with the cloth.

3. To rub against something.

   My shoes are beginning to rub.

Related terms

• rubber
• rubbing
• rub in
• rub it in
• rub out
• rub off

Translations

to move one object while maintaining contact with another object over some area

Albanian: fërkoj (sq) Arabic: حك (ar) (Hákka) Aromanian: frec Catalan: fregar (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 擦 (cmn) (cā), 磨 (cmn) (mó), 揉 (cmn) (róu), 蹭 (zh) (cèng) Czech: mnout (cs) Finnish: hieroa (fi), hinkata (fi) French: frotter (fr) Galician: fregar (gl) German: reiben (de)

Hungarian: dörzsöl (hu) Italian: strofinare (it), fregare (it) Japanese: 擦る (ja) (こする, kosuru) Korean: 비비다 (ko) (bibida) Latin: frico (la) Portuguese: esfregar (pt) Romanian: freca (ro) Romansch: sgrattar (rm) Russian: тереть (ru) (terét’) impf., потереть (ru) (poterét') pf. Scottish Gaelic: slìog (gd) Spanish: frotar (es)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Armenian: շփել (hy) (šp'el) Czech: třít Danish: gnide (da) (1,2); skave (da) (3) Dutch: wrijven (1) Finnish: hangata Ga: mmñra German: reiben Greek: τρίβω (el) (trívo) (1)

Lao: ສີ (sii) Latin: tergeo (la) Portuguese: friccionar (pt) Serbian: trljati, ribati, očešati, trti, tare Slovene: treti Swedish: gnida (sv), stryka (sv) (1), gnugga (sv) (2), skava (sv) (3) Telugu: రుద్దు (ruddu) Turkish: ovmak, ovalamak Twi: twitwi

External links

• rub in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• rub in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• rub at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• bur

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Czech

Rub of a playing card

Rub of a credit card

Pronunciation

• IPA: /rʊp/

Noun

rub m.

1. back (the reverse side)

   rub karty -- back of the card

   rub mince -- reverse of the coin

Antonyms

• líc

Related terms

• naruby

See also

• vzhůru nohama
• Rub on the Czech Wikipedia.cs.Wikipedia

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Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *rǫbъ.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /rûːb/

Noun

rȗb m. (Cyrillic spelling ру̑б)

1. rim
2. edge, brink

Declension

    declension of rub

	singular	plural
nominative	rȗb	rȕbovi
genitive	ruba	rubova
dative	rubu	rubovima
accusative	rub	rubove
vocative	rube	rubovi
locative	rubu	rubovima
instrumental	rubom	rubovima