From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishscrubscrub1 /skrʌb/ ●●○ verb (scrubbed, scrubbing) 1 [intransitive, transitive]DHCCLEAN to rub something hard, especially with a stiff brush, in order to clean it She was on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor. He scrubbed the dirt off his boots. The table needs to be scrubbed clean.scrub at She scrubbed at her face with a tissue.► see thesaurus at clean2 [transitive] informalCANCEL to decide not to do something that you had planned SYN cancel We scrubbed the idea in the end.3 [transitive] to remove carbon dioxide from the gas that results from burning coal, before letting it out into the air The liquid is used to scrub carbon dioxide from power plant exhaust gases. → scrub something ↔ out → scrub up→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
scrub• They made us scrub all the way through pregnancy as well, right up to the end.• The kids are all scrubbed and coiffed, backpacks fitted firmly on square shoulders.• The kitchen floor needs to be scrubbed and waxed.• Martin washed the mud off his hands and scrubbed his nails.• We haven't really got enough money for the trip -- let's just scrub it.• Yesterday's shuttle launch was scrubbed just ten minutes before liftoff.• Launch attempts were scrubbed seconds before liftoff on Thursday and Friday because of technical glitches.• My grandmother loved opera, and as she scrubbed the floor she would sing one aria or another.• After she had swept the room, she scrubbed the floor.• Part of my job was to wash the dishes and scrub the floors.• He had scrubbed the kitchen floor, cleaned the stove, and was sprinkling borax around the edges of the room.• Lou was on her knees, scrubbing the kitchen floor.• Scrub the potatoes and boil them for 5-10 minutes.• Scrub the potatoes, then put them in a pan of boiling water.• Fabric boots should be scrubbed with clean water to remove the dirt and allowed to dry naturally.• She was damp, she was sore from scrubbing with the shower mitt, her hair hung in rats' tails.scrubbed clean• She'd seen Jeanette close-to, and she'd seen her scrubbed clean and ready for home.• Everything was scrubbed clean, as she was herself.• The roads were all scrubbed clean by the frost and the snow.• Noticeboards have been scrubbed clean of posters, walls of daubed slogans and minds of memories of what really happened.• The place was scrubbed clean though flies feasted on the huge globules of red blood spattered across the white-washed walls.scrubscrub2 noun 1 [uncountable]HBP low bushes and trees that grow in very dry soil2 [singular] especially British EnglishDHCCLEAN if you give something a scrub, you clean it by rubbing it hard I gave the floor a good scrub.Examples from the Corpus
scrub• Try using fine sea salt as a scrub - this will help dry out blemishes naturally because it's slightly antiseptic.• No one believed they would be scrubs, either.• One outstanding local example was the Broyle in Ringmer, 2000 acres of scrub and clay mire, an old deer park.• There was nothing around them, just a bit of scrub in the distance.• Instead of the lake, my gaze rested upon a broken expanse of scrub.• Christine reached the hut from the road by a steep track through the scrub and so avoided the house.• Single-brooded, some nightingales start the flight south - to tropical Savannah, or thorny scrub - at the end of July.gave ... scrub• The trees gave way to scrub and there was little shade.Origin scrub1 (1200-1300) Low German or a Scandinavian language scrub2 1. (1300-1400) shrub2. (1900-2000) → SCRUB1 