n. 1 hairbrush, toothbrush, clothes-brush, shoe-brush, nail-brush, paintbrush; broom, dust-broom, besom, US whisk broom This brush is too harsh and may damage your teeth 2 See brush-off. 3 encounter, engagement, skirmish, Colloq Brit spot of bother Mark has had several brushes with the law
v. 4 scrub, clean; groom, curry; sweep, whisk, gather Brush your teeth twice a day I brushed down the mare before saddling her. Brush the crumbs off the table. 5 graze, touch He deliberately tried to brush against her in the corridor 6 brush aside or away. disregard, dismiss, put aside, shrug off Brushing aside the members' objections, he tried to force the committee's acceptance of the new rules 7 brush off. dismiss, ignore, rebuff, send off or away or packing He asked her out, but she brushed him off 8 brush up (on). review, restudy, go over, refresh, study, Archaic con You should brush up on your geometry before taking trigonometry