rub up

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

1. (transitive) To polish or scrub; to cover (something with a substance) by rubbing.

   I rubbed up the brass buttons on my jacket to make them shine.

   The pitcher rubs up the new baseball with dirt to get a better grip.

   • 1695, William Salmon, The Family Dictionary‎, London: H. Rhodes:

     Stains that come not by Grease are taken out by boiling Lemon-peel in Small-beer, with a little Copperas, till it be very strong of them: then with a hard Brush rub up the place with it,

   • 1786, John O’Keeffe, Patrick in Russia‎, Dublin, act I, page 11:

     Here’s a new guest for you; so clean up your house, rub up the mohogany table […]

   • 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter VIII, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. , volume III, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., , →OCLC, page 183:

     […] my next [aim was] to rub it [Moor-House] up with beeswax, oil, and an indefinite number of cloths, till it glitters again;

   • 1909 September, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “A Wedding at the Stone House”, in Anne of Avonlea, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, →OCLC, page 360:

     [T]here’s all the silver to be rubbed up yet […]

2. (transitive) To rub (a body part): to massage, give a massage to.
   • 1674, Hannah Woolley, A Supplement to The Queen-like Closet‎, London: Richard Lownds, page 9:

     […] every Morning when you Comb your head, dip a sponge in this water and rub up your Hair, and it will keep it clean and preserve it,

   • 1929, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 9, in Red Harvest‎, New York, N.Y.: Knopf:

     Bush’s handlers dragged him into his corner [of the boxing ring] and rubbed him up, not working very hard at it.

3. (transitive) To create (something) by rubbing.

   to rub up a lather

   The new shoe rubbed up a blister on the back of his foot.

4. (transitive, intransitive, informal, dated) To revive one's knowledge of (something); to renew (a skill).

   Synonyms: bone up, brush up, review, revise

   • 1775 January 17 (first performance), [Richard Brinsley Sheridan], The Rivals, a Comedy. , London: John Wilkie, , published 1775, →OCLC, Act III, scene , page 54:

     I muſt rub up my balancing, and chaſing, and boring.

   • 1915 October 18, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “The Little Governess”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 239:

     [Y]ou will have a nice quiet day to rest after the journey and rub up your German.

   • 1951, Nicholas Monsarrat, The Cruel Sea‎, New York, N.Y.: Knopf, Part 5, p. 364:

     [Y]ou'll have to rub up on the other sort of navigation now. How long is it since you used a sextant?

5. (transitive, US, slang) To assault (someone).^[1]

   Synonym: rough up

   • 1952, Chester Himes, chapter 11, in Cast the First Stone,‎, New York, N.Y.: Signet, page 107:

     There was a lot of yelling and gesticulating, and a few blows were passed. A couple of guards got rubbed up a little.

6. (transitive, obsolete) To reduce (something) to a powder or paste using friction (with a mortar and pestle, for example); to mix (with something) using friction.

   to rub up pigments with water or oil

   • 1697, William Dampier, chapter III, in A New Voyage Round the World. , London: James Knapton, , →OCLC, page 60:

     [T]hose Europeans, that use their Chocolate ready rubb’d up […]

   • 1843, J. Hewlett, chapter 23, in College Life; or, The Proctor’s Notebook,‎, volume 1, London: Henry Colburn, page 253:

     [The bursar] poured out a glass of sherry into a tumbler, and rubbed it up with an egg and a little sugar.

   • 1943, Charles Wortham Brook, Carlile and the Surgeons‎, Glasgow: Strickland Press, page 23:

     [Crude mercury] may be concealed in a pill by rubbing it up with anything of which you can make a paste fit for pills;

7. (transitive, obsolete) To excite or awaken (something); to revive or reawaken (something).

   to rub up the memory; to rub up old sores

   • 1640, James Ussher, Eighteen Sermons Preached in Oxford‎, London, published 1660, page 128:

     They desire a dead Minister, that would not rub up their consciences,

   • 1681, Thomas Manton, One Hundred and Ninety Sermons on the Hundred and Nineteenth Psalm‎, London: T. P., Sermon 102, p. 629:

     It’s a vexation to them when they would sleep securely, to have their consciences rubbing up and reviving their fears.

   • 1702, Susanna Centlivre, The Beau’s Duel‎, London: D. Brown and N. Cox, act III, page 30:

     Sir Will. What do you mean Gentlemen? / Emil. Only to rub up you[r] Courage a little.

   • 1790, Tate Wilkinson, Memoirs of His Own Life‎, volume 2, York, N.Y., page 134:

     [L]est I should be negligent, Mr. Garrick sent for me to rub up my attention, fearing I might like a lazy centinel sleep on my post:

• rub down
• rub up against
• rub up on
• rub up the wrong way

rub up (plural rub ups)

1. Alternative form of rub-up