brushed

comparative more brushed · superlative most brushed

1. Roughened by rubbing with an abrasive brushes, especially as a finish.

   The brushed aluminum vase had a soft appearance.

   4 more examples

   One of the most pleasing finishes which is put upon art metal lamps, gas and electric portable reading lamps is the clouded finish of either brushed copper or brushed brass.

   1911 February, Royal F. Clark, “Production of the Clouded Brass or Copper Finish upon Art Metal Lamps”, in Metal Industry, volume 9, page 77

   It was at this famous course that a well-known woman appeared not many seasons ago in one of the first very brushed wool golfing suits with a specially abbreviated skirt, and was instantly christened "Man Friday" by a distinguished golfer who was old enough to have known better.

   1924, The Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality - Volume 127, page 397

   The outer back was also covered in a new layer of brushed cotton.

   2012, Dinah Eastop, Kathryn Gill, Upholstery Conservation: Principles and Practice, page 40

   The brushed finish offers a more natural look and increases slip resistance.

   2024, Prof. Dr. Bilal Semih Bozdemir, What is Marble, page 371

2. Having been cleaned, tidied, or straightened with a brush.

   This boy is standing there with very brushed hair .

   2012, Kevin Sampson, Freshers, page 33

   3 more examples

   His posture balletic, his white whiskers mad as a cat's, his formal coat very brushed and very blue , muttering infamies at me all the while .

   2012, Lyndsay Faye, The Gods of Gotham

   They all looked very brushed and washed, and most of them wore evening dress.

   2018, Patrick Hamilton, Monday Morning

   Thus was born Osmany Gonzalez Rivero, alias "Brush," he was nicknamed that way because of his love of toothbrushes and hairbrushes because his teeth are always very white and his hair very brushed.

   2022, Jeannette Flores, A Dark Secret

   1. agricultureHaving been processed by rotating brushes that loosen and remove dirt.

      Of course, washed potatoes are more expensive than brushed potatoes.

      2023, A. T. Satha Ananthan, A Small Book to Save Big Bucks, page 107

      2 more examples

      The decay in sound unbrushed, brushed, and washed fruit, and in fruit all of which has been injured by the clippers in picking, by stems puncturing other oranges or by abrasions of other kinds.

      1906, “Loss by Decay in Oranges”, in Industrial Refrigeration, volume 30, page 313

      Most of the shipments have included duplicate lots of apparently sound brushed or unbrushed fruit, sound washed; the regular commercially packed fruit and oranges showing visible mechanical injury.

      1907 June 15, “Fruit Transportation and Storage Investigations”, in California Fruit Grower, volume 35, page 5

3. agricultureHaving been artificially formed into a swarm by being brushed off a honeycomb.

   When I make shaken or brushed swarms I usually wait till queen cells are found with eggs or larvae in them, although I do not think this is essential.

   1907 August, F. Greiner, “Shaken Swarms”, in The American Bee Keeper, volume 17, page 170

   2 more examples

   I recommended the forming of brushed swarms about 15 years ago, in the American Apiculturist, and made them on the old stand as well as on a new stand in uncounted numbers, with the result that these swarms always worked with the same vigor as natural swarms, so I know what I say.

   1900, L. Stachelhausen, “A New Management for Comb-Honey Production”, in Gleanings in Bee Culture, volume 28, page 840

   But when one practices this method of making artificial, shaken, or brushed swarms, he should remember that probably nothing will be accomplished in swarm prevention by shaking unless the bees are actually preparing to swarm.

   1907, Ernest Rob Root, Facts about Bees, page 56

4. Having been written or painted using a brush.

   This is natural, considering the place of the brushed word in both public and private space.

   2021, Abé Markus Nornes, Brushed in Light: Calligraphy in East Asian Cinema, page 2

   3 more examples

   The sparse drip patterns of his "preliminary" drip paintings were deposited over a foundation of brushed paint (see, for example, Water Birds, shown in color plate 13).

   2003, J. Casti, A. Karlqvist, Art and Complexity, page 134

   The fact that Blakeney's "boy" had been murdered as well as his master, that he was most likely a member of the Win Hu Tong, that Ligan—if it were really he—had been guildty of the double murder and caught by Win Hu men, the terrible torutre that could only have been inflicted by Chines pointed strongly enough to the affair being one of Chinese tong vengeance; and the "brushed" characters on the rice paper seemed to give additional weight to the evidence.

   2019, G. H. Teed, The Pearls of Doom, page 56

   The only worded text on the memorial is to be found on its rear surface, which features an inscription carved after the brushed calligraphy original of its author, Miyakawa Masa'omi, who was principal in 1948 of the coed high school Ichijo became after the postwar national education reforms.

   2024, M.G. Sheftall, Hiroshima

5. Covered in brush or scrub.

   The mounted detachments at hand had found the heavily brushed country to be difficult for cavalry operations.

   2015, Clifford Dowdey, Lee: A Biography

   2 more examples

   Other data obtained indicate that an average holding having 20 to 25 acres cleared and also 6 or 8 acres of brushed pasture can support 4 milk cows and 3 head of young cattle.

   1931, W. A. Hartman, J. D. Black, Economic Aspects of Land Settlement in the Cut-over Region of the Great Lakes States, page 33

   The very air was still and subdued and he felt alerted to stay concealed back within the river's thickly brushed margins.

   2020, Jackson Burrows, Moons of the Swan

6. Having had brush or scrub removed.

   Unless the brushed areas are quickly seeded they grow up to weeds and are useless for forage.

   1919, John Swenehart, W. N. Clark, Land Clearing Contests Help Clear Land, page 10

   2 more examples

   The following year, some of last year's brushed land is stumped, the clover turned under, manure from the stock used on it, and roots for the following winter planted, any surplus land being used for the Upper Wis consin cash crop, potatoes .

   1917 January, William W. Carson, “The Settler in Upper Wisconsin”, in The Country Magazine, volume 11, number 4, page 163

   In the partial brushed plot, 5m-wide strips with no aspen removed were left adjacent to 7m-wide strips in which all the aspen had been removed mechanically.

   2010, Hamish Kimmins, Juan A. Blanco, Brad Seely, Forecasting Forest Futures, page 93

1. participlepastsimple past and past participle of brush

   He brushed past, doing no harm but not apologizing for his contact either.