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Rub down   /rəb daʊn/   Listen
verb
Rub  v. t.  (past & past part. rubbed; pres. part. rubbing)  
1.
To subject (a body) to the action of something moving over its surface with pressure and friction, especially to the action of something moving back and forth; as, to rub the flesh with the hand; to rub wood with sandpaper. "It shall be expedient, after that body is cleaned, to rub the body with a coarse linen cloth."
2.
To move over the surface of (a body) with pressure and friction; to graze; to chafe; as, the boat rubs the ground.
3.
To cause (a body) to move with pressure and friction along a surface; as, to rub the hand over the body. "Two bones rubbed hard against one another."
4.
To spread a substance thinly over; to smear. "The smoothed plank,... New rubbed with balm."
5.
To scour; to burnish; to polish; to brighten; to cleanse; often with up or over; as, to rub up silver. "The whole business of our redemption is to rub over the defaced copy of the creation."
6.
To hinder; to cross; to thwart. (R.) "'T is the duke's pleasure, Whose disposition, all the world well knows, Will not be rubbed nor stopped."
To rub down.
(a)
To clean by rubbing; to comb or curry; as, to down a horse.
(b)
To reduce or remove by rubbing; as, to rub down the rough points.
To rub off, to clean anything by rubbing; to separate by friction; as, to rub off rust.
To rub out, to remove or separate by friction; to erase; to obliterate; as, to rub out a mark or letter; to rub out a stain.
To rub up.
(a)
To burnish; to polish; to clean.
(b)
To excite; to awaken; to rouse to action; as, to rub up the memory.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Rub down" Quotes from Famous Books



... purse up, pack, squeeze, stow; pinch, tighten, strangle; cramp; dwarf, bedwarf[obs3]; shorten &c. 201; circumscribe &c. 229; restrain &c. 751. [reduce in size by abrasion or paring. see subtraction 38] abrade, pare, reduce, attenuate, rub down, scrape, file, file down, grind, grind down, chip, shave, shear, wear down. Adj. contracting &c. v.; astringent; shrunk, contracted &c. v.; strangulated, tabid[obs3], wizened, stunted; waning &c. v.; neap, compact. unexpanded &c. (expand &c. 194)[obs3]; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... petit-maitre told a country gentleman in a coffeehouse at the west end of the town that he looked like a groom. "I am one," replied he, "and am ready to rub down an ass." ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 5, May 1810 • Various
... character. Such a man caricatures Christianity, and scares other men away from it. Such a man ostentatiously presents himself as one in whose life religion is dominant. It is religion that is supposed to rub down that long face, and inspire that stiff demeanor, and to make him at all points an unattractive and unlovable man. Of course it is not religion that does any thing of the kind, but it has the credit of it with the world, ...
— Lessons in Life - A Series of Familiar Essays • Timothy Titcomb


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