rub up

present singular third person rubs up · participle present rubbing up · participle past rubbed up · past rubbed up

1. transitiveTo polish or scrub; to cover (something with a substance) by rubbing.

   I rubbed up the brass buttons on my jacket to make them shine.

   5 more examples

   The pitcher rubs up the new baseball with dirt to get a better grip.

   Stains that come not by Grease are taken out by boiling Lemon-peel in Small-beer, with a little Copperas, till it be very strong of them: then with a hard Brush rub up the place with it,

   1695, William Salmon, The Family Dictionary, London: H. Rhodes

   Here’s a new guest for you; so clean up your house, rub up the mohogany table […]

   1786, John O’Keeffe, Patrick in Russia, Dublin, act I, page 11

   […] my next [aim was] to rub it [Moor-House] up with beeswax, oil, and an indefinite number of cloths, till it glitters again;

   1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter VIII, in Jane Eyre. […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 183

   [T]here’s all the silver to be rubbed up yet […]

   1909 September, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “A Wedding at the Stone House”, in Anne of Avonlea, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, →OCLC, page 360

2. transitiveTo rub (a body part): to massage, give a massage to.

   Bush’s handlers dragged him into his corner [of the boxing ring] and rubbed him up, not working very hard at it.

   1929, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 9, in Red Harvest, New York, N.Y.: Knopf

   1 more example

   […] 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,

   1674, Hannah Woolley, A Supplement to The Queen-like Closet, London: Richard Lownds, page 9

   1. intransitivetransitivewith onTo rub on someone or something.

      The cat rubbed up on my legs.

3. transitiveTo create (something) by rubbing.

   to rub up a lather

   1 more example

   The new shoe rubbed up a blister on the back of his foot.

4. ambitransitivedatedinformalTo revive one's knowledge of (something); to renew (a skill).

   I muſt rub up my balancing, and chaſing, and boring.

   1775 January 17 (first performance), [Richard Brinsley Sheridan], The Rivals, a Comedy. […], London: […] John Wilkie, […], published 1775, →OCLC, Act III, scene [iv], page 54

   2 more examples

   [Y]ou will have a nice quiet day to rest after the journey and rub up your German.

   1915 October 18, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “The Little Governess”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 239

   [Y]ou'll have to rub up on the other sort of navigation now. How long is it since you used a sextant?

   1951, Nicholas Monsarrat, The Cruel Sea, New York, N.Y.: Knopf, Part 5, p. 364

   Synonyms: bone up, brush up, review, revise

5. USslangtransitiveTo assault (someone).

   There was a lot of yelling and gesticulating, and a few blows were passed. A couple of guards got rubbed up a little.

   1952, Chester Himes, chapter 11, in Cast the First Stone,, New York, N.Y.: Signet, page 107

   Synonyms: rough up

6. obsoletetransitiveTo 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

   3 more examples

   [T]hose Europeans, that use their Chocolate ready rubb’d up […]

   1697, William Dampier, chapter III, in A New Voyage Round the World. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, page 60

   [The bursar] poured out a glass of sherry into a tumbler, and rubbed it up with an egg and a little sugar.

   1843, J. Hewlett, chapter 23, in College Life; or, The Proctor’s Notebook,, volume 1, London: Henry Colburn, page 253

   [Crude mercury] may be concealed in a pill by rubbing it up with anything of which you can make a paste fit for pills;

   1943, Charles Wortham Brook, Carlile and the Surgeons, Glasgow: Strickland Press, page 23

7. obsoletetransitiveTo excite or awaken (something); to revive or reawaken (something).

   to rub up the memory; to rub up old sores

   4 more examples

   They desire a dead Minister, that would not rub up their consciences,

   1640, James Ussher, Eighteen Sermons Preached in Oxford, London, published 1660, page 128

   It’s a vexation to them when they would sleep securely, to have their consciences rubbing up and reviving their fears.

   1681, Thomas Manton, One Hundred and Ninety Sermons on the Hundred and Nineteenth Psalm, London: T. P., Sermon 102, p. 629

   Sir Will. What do you mean Gentlemen? / Emil. Only to rub up you[r] Courage a little.

   1702, Susanna Centlivre, The Beau’s Duel, London: D. Brown and N. Cox, act III, page 30

   [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:

   1790, Tate Wilkinson, Memoirs of His Own Life, volume 2, York, N.Y., page 134

plural rub ups

1. alternativeAlternative form of rub-up.