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, p. 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 3163777, 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, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea, Boston: L.C. Page, Chapter 30, p. 360,

     […] there’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, p. 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, Red Harvest, New York: Knopf, Chapter 9,

     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, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Rivals, London: John Wilkie, Act III, Scene 5, p. 54,

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

   • 1920, Katherine Mansfield, “The Little Governess” in Bliss and Other Stories, Toronto: Macmillan, p. 239,

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

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

     ‘ […] you’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, Cast the First Stone, New York: Signet, Chapter 11, p. 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, A New Voyage Round the World, London: James Knapton, “The Travels of Mr. William Dampier,” Chapter 3, p. 60,

     those Europeans, that use their Chocolate ready rubb’d up

   • 1843, J. Hewlett, College Life; or, The Proctor’s Notebook, London: Henry Colburn, Volume 1, Chapter 23, p. 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, p. 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, 1660, p. 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, p. 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, York: for the author, Volume 2, p. 134,

     […] lest 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