(~s, ~bing, ~bed)
1.
If you ~ a part of your body, you move your hand or fingers backwards and forwards over it while pressing firmly.
He ~bed his arms and stiff legs...
‘I fell in a ditch’, he said, ~bing at a scrape on his hand.
VERB: V n, V prep/adv
2.
If you ~ against a surface or ~ a part of your body against a surface, you move it backwards and forwards while pressing it against the surface.
A cat was ~bing against my leg...
He kept ~bing his leg against mine.
VERB: V prep, V n prep
3.
If you ~ an object or a surface, you move a cloth backward and forward over it in order to clean or dry it.
She took off her glasses and ~bed them hard...
He ~bed and ~bed but couldn’t seem to get clean.
VERB: V n, V
4.
If you ~ a substance into a surface or ~ something such as dirt from a surface, you spread it over the surface or remove it from the surface using your hand or something such as a cloth.
He ~bed oil into my back...
VERB: V n prep
5.
If you ~ two things together or if they ~ together, they move backwards and forwards, pressing against each other.
He ~bed his hands together a few times.
...the 650-mile rift that separates the Pacific and North American geological plates as they ~ together.
VERB: V n together , V together
6.
If something you are wearing or holding ~s, it makes you sore because it keeps moving backwards and forwards against your skin.
Smear cream on to your baby’s skin at the edges of the plaster to prevent it from ~bing.
VERB: V
7.
Rub is used in expressions such as there’s the ~ and the ~ is when you are mentioning a difficulty that makes something hard or impossible to achieve. (FORMAL)
‘What do you want to write about?’. And there was the ~, because I didn’t yet know.
N-SING: the N
8.
A massage can be referred to as a ~.
She sometimes asks if I want a back ~.
N-COUNT: usu sing
9.
see also ~bing
10.
If you ~ shoulders with famous people, you meet them and talk to them. You can also say that you ~ elbows with someone, especially in American English.
He regularly ~bed shoulders with the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Kylie Minogue.
PHRASE: V inflects, PHR n
11.
If you ~ someone up the wrong way in British English, or ~ someone the wrong way in American English, you offend or annoy them without intending to. (INFORMAL)
What are you going to get out of him if you ~ him up the wrong way?
= annoy
PHRASE: V inflects
12.
to ~ someone’s nose in it : see nose
to ~ salt into the wound: see salt