rub out

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See also: rubout

English

Verb

rub out (third-person singular simple present rubs out, present participle rubbing out, simple past and past participle rubbed out)

  1. (transitive) To delete or erase or remove (something) by rubbing, especially with a rubber (eraser).
    Coordinate term: rub off
    The teacher wanted to rub out the chalk marks on the blackboard.
  2. (obsolete) To get by; to live.
  3. (transitive, criminal slang) To kill, especially to murder.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:kill
    • 1942, James Thurber, The Catbird Seat:
      It was just a week to the day since Mr. Martin had decided to rub out Mrs. Ulgine Barrows.
    • 2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN:
      'Mr Grimaldi,' fills in Smoke, 'what I believe Fay has too much tact to spit out and say is this: the Rey woman might be imagining we rubbed out Dr Sixsmith.'
  4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rub,‎ out.

Usage notes

  • In both transitive senses the object may appear before or after the particle. If the object is a pronoun, then it must be before the particle.

Derived terms

Translations

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