# rub up
## English
### Verb

rub up (third-person singular simple present rubs up, present participle rubbing up, simple past and past participle rubbed up)
* (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 […]
* (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.
* (transitive) To create (something) by rubbing.
    to rub up a lather
    The new shoe rubbed up a blister on the back of his foot.
* (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 [iv], 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?
* (transitive, US, slang) To assault (someone).
    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.
* (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;
* (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:

#### See also

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

### Noun

rub up (plural rub ups)
* Alternative form of rub-up

### References

* ↑ Tom Dalzell (ed.), The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English, 2008.