Dictionary Definition
scrub adj : (of domestic animals) not selectively
bred
Noun
2 the act of cleaning a surface by rubbing it
with a brush and soap and water [syn: scrubbing, scouring]
Verb
1 clean with hard rubbing; "She scrubbed his
back" [syn: scour]
2 wash thoroughly; "surgeons must scrub prior to
an operation" [syn: scrub up] [also:
scrubbing, scrubbed]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
\Scrub\,- Rhymes: -ʌb
Adjective
- Mean; dirty; contemptible; scrubby.
- "How solitary, how scrub, does this town look!" -Walpole.
- "No little scrub joint shall come on my board." -Swift.
- "How solitary, how scrub, does this town look!" -Walpole.
Derived terms
- Scrub game a game, as of ball, by unpracticed players.
- Scrub race a race between scrubs, or between untrained animals or contestants.
Noun
- One who labors hard and lives meanly; a mean fellow.
- We should go there in as proper a manner possible; nor altogether like the scrubs about us.
- One who is a freak or unable to complete easy tasks.
- You are such a scrub! Instead of washing the dishes you put the used food on your face!
- A worn-out brush.
- A thicket or jungle, often specified by the name of the prevailing plant; as, oak scrub, palmetto scrub, etc.
- (Stock Breeding): One of the common livestock of a region of no particular breed or not of pure breed, esp. when inferior in size, etc. Often used to refer to male animals unsuited for breeding.
- Vegetation of inferior quality, though sometimes thick and impenetrable, growing in poor soil or in sand; also, brush. See brush, above.
- One who is no longer new to a game but still exhibits novice tendencies. "What a scrub."
Translations
one who labors hard and lives meanly; a mean
fellow
something small and mean
a worn-out brush
a thicket or jungle
- Finnish: pensaikko
one of the common livestock of a region of no
particular breed or not of pure breed
vegetation of inferior quality
- Finnish: kitukasvuinen kasvi
one who is no longer new to a game but still
exhibits novice tendencies
Derived terms
- Scrub bird (Zool.), an Australian passerine bird of the family , as ; -- called also .
- Scrub oak (Bot.), the popular name of several dwarfishspecies of oak. The scrub oak of New England and the Middle States is , a scraggy shrub; that of the Southern States is a small tree (); that of the Rocky Mountain region is , var. Gambelii.
- Scrub robin (Zo["o]l.), an Australian singing bird of the genus .
Verb
- To rub hard; to wash with rubbing; usually, to rub with a wet brush, or with something coarse or rough, for the purpose of cleaning or brightening; as, to scrub a floor, a doorplate.
- To rub anything hard, especially with a wet brush; to scour;
- To be diligent and penurious; as, to scrub hard for a living.
- To call off a scheduled event; to cancel.
- Engineers had to scrub the satellite launch due to bad weather.
Translations
to rub anything hard
to be diligent and penurious
to call off a scheduled event; to cancel
- Finnish: perua
Extensive Definition
Scrub(s) may refer to:
- Scrubs (clothing), worn by medical staff
- Scrub (occupation) or surgical technologist
- Scrubs (TV series), an American television program
- Scrub baseball also known as "scrub" or "scrubs", an informal game of baseball without teams
- Wormwood Scrubs also known as "The Scrubs", an area in west London
- Wormwood Scrubs (HM Prison) also known as "The Scrubs", a prison in west London
- Scrub, low shrub and grass characteristic of scrubland
See also
- Scrubber, an industrial gas-pollution control device
- Data scrubbing, an error correction technique
- "No Scrubs", a song by TLC from the Fanmail
- Deku Scrubs or Deku, a race of creatures in The Legend of Zelda media
scrub in Thai: สครับ
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
a nobody, a nothing, abandon, ablate, ablation, ablution, abort, abrade, abrase, abrasion, abrasive, afforestation, arboretum, attrition, baptize, bark, bath, bathe, belay, boondocks, bramble, brier, brier bush, brush, brushwood, buff, buffing, burnishing, bush, bushveld, call off, cancel, cease, chafe, chafing, chase, cipher, cleaning out, cleanse, climax forest, cloud
forest, common man, cut it out, dendrology, desist, detrition, discontinue, do away with,
douche, douching, dressing, drop, drop it, dummy, elution, elutriation, end, enema, erase, erasure, erode, erosion, figurehead, file, filing, flush, flush out, flushing, flushing out,
forest, forest land,
forest preserve, forestry, fray, frazzle, fret, fretting, fringing forest,
gall, gallery forest,
galling, gargle, give over, give up,
gnaw, gnaw away, grate, graze, grazing, greenwood, grind, grinding, halt, hanger, have done with, hold, holystone, index forest,
insignificancy,
irrigate, irrigation, jackstraw, jungle, jungles, knock it off, lather, lathering, launder, lavabo, lavage, lavation, lave, laving, lay off, leave off,
lightweight,
limation, little
fellow, little guy, man of straw, mediocrity, mop, mop up, mopping, mopping up, national
forest, nebbish, nobody
one knows, nonentity,
obscurity, palmetto
barrens, park, park forest,
pine barrens, pip-squeak, polish, polishing, poor relation,
primeval forest, protection forest, punk, quit, rain forest, rasp, rasping, raze, reforestation, refrain, relinquish, renounce, rinse, rinse out, rinsing, ritually immerse,
rub, rub away, rub off, rub
out, rubbing away, runt,
sandblasting,
sanding, scour, scouring, scrape, scraping, scratch, scratching, scrub up,
scrubbing, scrubbing
up, scrubland,
scrubwood, scuff, secondary, selection forest,
shampoo, shining, shower, shrimp, shrub, shrubbery, shrubland, shrubwood, silviculture, skin, sluice, sluice out, small fry,
small potato, small potatoes, smoothing, soap, soaping, sponge, sponging, sprout forest,
squirt, squit, stand of timber, state
forest, stay, stop, subaltern, subordinate, swab, swabbing, syringe, terminate, timber, timberland, toivel, tree veld, tub, underling, understrapper, virgin
forest, wash, wash out,
wash up, washing,
washing up, washout,
washup, wear, wear away, wearing away,
whiffet, whippersnapper, wildwood, wiping up, wood, woodland, woods