rugburn

plural rugburns · alternative rug burn · alternative rug-burn

1. countableA painful burn or redness of skin, especially on knees, elbows, and hands, from repetitive friction against a rug or similar surface.

   The rugburn became increasingly inflamed, and, through trembling lips, which were pursed as if to whistle, my cure began singing its sublime, plaintive painsong.

   2021, Adam Levin, Bubblegum, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 9

   1 more example

   The ombudsman found that youth living at El Pueblo remained under the care and supervision of staff who had been accused of abusing them. In one case, a youth was reportedly dragged across the carpet by two staff members, resulting in rugburns on his face.

   2019 August 13, “A Pueblo center for troubled kids had 243 abuse allegations in the year before it closed”, in The Colorado Sun

2. uncountableRugburns in general.

   Like, seriously, thanks for the music. It's meant a lot. […] Your lead's hotter than rugburn.

   2004, Robert Voedisch, Zamboni Blues

   1 more example

   His writing about the shattering nature of syphilis is both devastating and a bit sly. "You could joke with the word 'pox,'" he wrote. "You can’t joke with the word 'syphilis.'" Reading Lawrence’s writing about sex, in general, leaves you suspecting that he walked around with perpetual rugburn.

   2019 November 8, Dwight Garner, “From Nabokov and Lawrence, Giants of 20th-Century Fiction, New Volumes of Nonfiction”, in New York Times

present singular third person rugburns · participle present rugburning · participle past rugburned · past rugburned · alternative rug burn · alternative rug-burn

1. transitiveTo cause a rugburn to form.

   The threadbare red and gold carpeting rugburned his cheek, but he rolled over at once and kicked the door shut.

   2014, Keith Melton, Dark Ride Dogs, Etopia Press, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   Every time I rugburned my knees, every time some morbidly obese man fondled me as if I were his mindless property, my distaste for the job deepened.

   2010, John Lindo, Collegiate Maneuvers, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 174

   The remaining residents cringed at the sight of Trayer's face; the left side of his cheek had been severely rugburned.

   2021, Mr. J, The Stories You Ignore, AuthorHouse, →ISBN