v. 1 massage, knead, stroke; scour, scrub, scrape, abrade, chafe, clean; wipe, smooth, polish, shine, buff, burnish Rub my back, would you? - Not there, a little lower down You are not supposed to rub those plastic baths with abrasive cleansers. Before the guests arrived, we rubbed the silver till you could see yourself in it. 2 rub in or on. apply, smooth, smear, spread, put The ache may be relieved a bit if you rub on some liniment 3 rub (it or something) in. emphasize, stress, make an issue of, harp on, reiterate, dwell on, hammer away, dramatize It's bad enough that Caroline did better than I did - you don't have to keep rubbing it in 4 rub off or out. expunge, erase, remove, delete, cancel, eliminate, eradicate It's a pity, Peter, that you rubbed out the right reply and wrote in the wrong one The boys were released on the condition that they would rub the graffiti off the wall. 5 rub off (on). affect, be transferred (to), be communicated or transmitted (to), be passed on or along (to), be imparted to Your mother and I had hoped that some of our love of music might have rubbed off on you 6 rub out. murder, kill, execute, slay The Godfather ordered all witnesses to be rubbed out 7 rub shoulders with. rub elbows with, associate with, socialize with, mix with, fraternize with, keep company with, consort with, Colloq US run or pal or chum around with Since getting his knighthood Charles no longer rubs shoulders with the likes of us 8 rub (someone) (up) the wrong way. annoy, irritate, irk, anger, provoke, go against the grain, Colloq bug, get under one's or someone's skin, peeve I don't know what it is about Underbridge, but every time we meet he manages to rub me up the wrong way
n. 9 wipe, stroke, rubbing You will have to give that stain a good rub to make it come out 10 massage, rub-down After exercising, Jane always has an alcohol rub 11 the rub. the or a catch or hitch or snag or hindrance or set-back, the or an obstacle or impediment, the or a difficulty or problem or trouble The only rub I can see is that Warren may not agree to resign