rub

n. [ Cf. W. rhwb. See Rub, v, t, ] 1. The act of rubbing; friction. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which rubs; that which tends to hinder or obstruct motion or progress; hindrance; obstruction, an impediment; especially, a difficulty or obstruction hard to overcome; a pinch. [ 1913 Webster ]

Every rub is smoothed on our way. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

To sleep, perchance to dream; ay, there's the rub. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Upon this rub, the English ambassadors thought fit to demur. Hayward. [ 1913 Webster ]

One knows not, certainly, what other rubs might have been ordained for us by a wise Providence. W. Besant. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Inequality of surface, as of the ground in the game of bowls; unevenness. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Something grating to the feelings; sarcasm; joke; as, a hard rub. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Imperfection; failing; fault. [ Obs. ] Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. A chance. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Flight shall leave no Greek a rub. Chapman. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. A stone, commonly flat, used to sharpen cutting tools; a whetstone; -- called also rubstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

Rub iron, an iron guard on a wagon body, against which a wheel rubs when cramped too much. --
Rub of the green (Golf), anything happening to a ball in motion, such as its being deflected or stopped by any agency outside the match, or by the fore caddie. [ 1913 Webster + Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Rubbed p. pr. & vb. n. Rubbing. ] [ Probably of Celtic origin; cf. W. rhwbiaw, gael. rub. ] 1. To subject (a body) to the action of something moving over its surface with pressure and friction, especially to the action of something moving back and forth; as, to rub the flesh with the hand; to rub wood with sandpaper. [ 1913 Webster ]

It shall be expedient, after that body is cleaned, to rub the body with a coarse linen cloth. Sir T. Elyot. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To move over the surface of (a body) with pressure and friction; to graze; to chafe; as, the boat rubs the ground. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To cause (a body) to move with pressure and friction along a surface; as, to rub the hand over the body. [ 1913 Webster ]

Two bones rubbed hard against one another. Arbuthnot. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To spread a substance thinly over; to smear. [ 1913 Webster ]

The smoothed plank, . . .
New rubbed with balm. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To scour; to burnish; to polish; to brighten; to cleanse; -- often with up or over; as, to rub up silver. [ 1913 Webster ]

The whole business of our redemption is to rub over the defaced copy of the creation. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. To hinder; to cross; to thwart. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

'T is the duke's pleasure,
Whose disposition, all the world well knows,
Will not be rubbed nor stopped. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

To rub down. (a) To clean by rubbing; to comb or curry; as, to down a horse. (b) To reduce or remove by rubbing; as, to rub down the rough points. --
To rub off, to clean anything by rubbing; to separate by friction; as, to rub off rust. --
To rub out, to remove or separate by friction; to erase; to obliterate; as, to rub out a mark or letter; to rub out a stain. --
To rub up. (a) To burnish; to polish; to clean. (b) To excite; to awaken; to rouse to action; as, to rub up the memory. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The sound of a drum when continuously beaten; hence, a clamorous, repeated sound; a clatter. [ 1913 Webster ]

The rubadub of the abolition presses. D. Webster. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl.; sing. Rubai /sing>. [ Ar. rubā'iyāh quatrian, pl. of rubā'iy having four radicals, fr. rubā' four. ] Quatrians; as, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Sometimes in pl. construed as sing., a poem in such stanzas. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

‖a. [ It. ] Robbed; borrowed. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖
Temple rubato. [ It. ] (Mus.) Borrowed time; -- a term applied to a style of performance in which some tones are held longer than their legitimate time, while others are proportionally curtailed. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Rubbish. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who, or that which, rubs. Specifically: (a) An instrument or thing used in rubbing, polishing, or cleaning. (b) A coarse file, or the rough part of a file. (c) A whetstone; a rubstone. (d) An eraser, usually made of caoutchouc or a synthetic rubber[ 4 ]. (e) The cushion of an electrical machine. (f) One who performs massage, especially in a Turkish bath. (g) Something that chafes or annoys; hence, something that grates on the feelings; a sarcasm; a rub. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. In some games, as bridge or whist, the odd game, as the third or the fifth, which decides the winner when there is a tie between the players; as, to play the rubber; also, a contest determined by the winning of two out of three games; as, to play a rubber of whist. Beaconsfield. “A rubber of cribbage.” Dickens. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. India rubber; caoutchouc; gum elastic; -- also called natural rubber. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

4. Any substance, whether natural or synthetic, resembling India rubber with respect to its elasticity[ 1 ]. [ PJC ]

5. A low-cut overshoe made of natural or synthetic rubber[ 4 ], serving to keep the feet and shoes dry when walking in the rain or on a wet surface; -- usually used in the plural. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. A condom. [ Slang ] [ PJC ]

Antimony rubber, an elastic durable variety of vulcanized caoutchouc of a red color. It contains antimony sulphide as an important constituent. --
Hard rubber, a kind of vulcanized caoutchouc which nearly resembles horn in texture, rigidity, etc. --
India rubber, caoutchouc. See Caoutchouc. --
Rubber cloth, cloth covered with caoutchouc for excluding water or moisture. --
Rubber dam (Dentistry), a shield of thin sheet rubber clasped around a tooth to exclude saliva from the tooth. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A closed loop of rubber usually having a thin rectangular cross-section; also called elastic band; -- it varies in length from the circumference of a finger to several inches, and is usually used to hold several objects together temporarily, by the tension exerted when the band is stretched and fitted around the objects to be held; as, to hold a pack of cards together with a rubber band. [ PJC ]