Meaning & use
scrub
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
To clean something by rubbing it hard, usually with a brush and water.
Grammar: Takes an object for the thing cleaned: scrub the floor; with none, it describes the action: she scrubbed for an hour.
Patterns
- scrub something
- scrub something clean
- scrub at something
He scrubbed the pan until it shone.
She scrubbed at the stain for ten minutes.
Scrub your hands with soap before eating.
nounsingular
An act of cleaning something by rubbing it hard.
Grammar: Usually used with a: give the floor a good scrub.
Patterns
- give something a scrub
The pots need a good scrub.
Give the bathtub a quick scrub before our guests arrive.
noununcountable
Low, tough plants and bushes growing in dry, rough land, or the land covered by them.
Grammar: Uncountable: the hill was covered in scrub.
Patterns
- scrub land
Goats wandered across the scrub on the hillside.
A fire swept through the dry scrub.
nouncountableslangdisapproving
A person thought to be unimpressive, useless or lacking ambition or money.
Grammar: Countable and insulting: he called him a scrub.
He called the player a scrub after the missed shot.
In the song, a scrub is someone who depends on others for money.
verbtransitiveinformal
To cancel something that was planned.
Grammar: Takes an object: scrub the launch.
Patterns
- scrub a plan
- scrub a launch
Engineers scrubbed the launch because of bad weather.
They scrubbed the trip when the car broke down.
Word forms
| third person singular | scrubs |
|---|---|
| past tense | scrubbed |
| past participle | scrubbed |
| -ing form | scrubbing |
| plural | scrubs |
Common combinations
- scrub the floor
- She scrubbed the floor on her knees.
- scrub clean
- He scrubbed the table clean.
- scrub brush
- Use a stiff scrub brush on the tiles.
- scrub away
- I couldn't scrub away the stain.
- scrub off
- She scrubbed off the dirt.
Synonyms and how they differ
- scour
- Scour suggests harder rubbing with something rough to remove stuck-on dirt, whereas scrub is more general.
- rub
- Rub is gentler and does not necessarily involve cleaning, while scrub is firm and about cleaning.
- loser
- Loser is a common insult for someone who fails, while scrub in the slang sense stresses lacking money or ambition.
Word family
Commonly confused: scrub or scrap?
scrub vs scrap
Scrap means a small piece or leftover, or to throw something away, while scrub means to clean by rubbing.
Practice
After the camping trip, we had to ___ the muddy boots with a stiff brush.
Choose one answer.
Cleaning mud with a stiff brush is scrubbing. Scrap, scoop and skim do not describe cleaning by hard rubbing.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “scrub”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.