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bürsten. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
bürsten, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
bürsten in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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German
Etymology
From Middle High German bürsten; see Borste (“brush, bristle”).
Pronunciation
Verb
bürsten (weak, third-person singular present bürstet, past tense bürstete, past participle gebürstet, auxiliary haben)
- (transitive) to scrub; to clean a surface with a brush (but not usually teeth, for which putzen)
Die Kacheln müsste ich mal richtig bürsten.- I have to properly brush these tiles sometime.
- (transitive) to brush (hair)
Ich bürste dir kurz die Haare.- I’ll brush your hair quickly.
- (transitive) to brush someone’s hair (should be used with caution in some contexts because of the vulgar sense below)
Ich bürste dich kurz.- I’ll brush your hair quickly.
- (literally, “I’ll brush you quickly.”)
- (reflexive) to brush one’s own hair
Ich bürste mich kurz.- I’ll brush my hair quickly.
- (transitive, colloquial, vulgar) to fuck, have sex with
Usage notes
- Kämmen (literally “to comb”) is often preferred with hair, even when the device used is a brush rather than a comb.
Conjugation
Conjugation of
bürsten (
weak, auxiliary
haben)
1Rare except in very formal contexts; alternative in würde normally preferred.
Composed forms of
bürsten (
weak, auxiliary
haben)
Related terms
Further reading
- “bürsten” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
- “bürsten” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
- “bürsten” in Duden online
- “bürsten” in OpenThesaurus.de