brush
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: brŭsh
ipa: /bɹʌʃ/
enpr: brĕsh
ipa: /bɹɛʃ/
rhymes: -ʌʃ
Forms: form: brushes
Etymology: From Middle English brusshe, from Old French broisse (Modern French brosse), from Vulgar Latin *brustia, from Frankish *bursti, from Proto-Germanic *burstiz (“bristle”), or also Vulgar Latin *bruscia, from Proto-Germanic *bruskaz (“tuft, thicket, underbrush”), which could be from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrusgo-.
Senses: glosses: An implement consisting of multiple more or less flexible bristles or other filaments attached to a handle, used for any of various purposes including cleaning, painting, and arranging hair.
examples: text: She gave her hair a quick brush.
text: as leaves
Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush
Fell from their boughs
ref: c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 92:
glosses: The act of brushing something.
glosses: A piece of conductive material, usually carbon, serving to maintain electrical contact between the stationary and rotating parts of a machine.
examples: text: If there was a sharp point nearby, electricity would stream from it in a luminous brush, a little corposant, and one could blow out candles with the outstreaming “electric wind,” or even get this to turn a little rotor on its pivot.
ref: 2001, Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood:
synonyms: corposant
glosses: A brush-like electrical discharge of sparks.
examples: text: We broke away toward the north, the tribe howling on our track. Across the open spaces we gained, and in the brush they caught up with us, and more than once it was nip and tuck.
ref: 1906, Jack London, Before Adam, chapter 12
text: One typical Grecian kiln engorged one thousand muleloads of juniper wood in a single burn. Fifty such kilns would devour six thousand metric tons of trees and brush annually.
ref: 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion:
glosses: Wild vegetation, generally larger than grass but smaller than trees. See shrubland.
examples: text: brush with death
text: He has had brushes with communism from time to time.
text: The usual visual grammar was in place – a carpet in the street, people in paddocks awaiting a brush with something glamorous, blokes with earpieces, birds in frocks of colliding colours that if sighted in nature would indicate the presence of poison.
ref: 2013 September 13, Russell Brand, “Russell Brand and the GQ awards: 'It's amazing how absurd it seems'”, in The Guardian:
text: He fell seriously ill at 21 with pneumonia and doctors feared for his life. Three cysts were found on his right lung and part of it was removed in a brutal operation. The brush with death strengthened his determination to become a priest and he entered a Jesuit seminary soon afterwards.
ref: 2025 April 21, Peter Stanford, “Pope Francis obituary”, in The Guardian:
glosses: A short and sometimes occasional encounter or experience.
examples: text: They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.
ref: 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
text: We terrified the mare and foal;
 The fox stood still and far too bold -
So we strung him up, brush neatly folded
 Mayhem, maybe.
ref: 1988, “Mayhem Maybe”, in Ian Anderson (music), 20 Years of Jethro Tull, performed by Jethro Tull:
glosses: The furry tail of an animal, especially of a fox.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
zoology
glosses: A tuft of hair on the mandibles.
examples: 1860, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage (originally published in Cornhill Magazine
Mark and Lord Lufton had been boys together, and his lordship knew that Mark in his heart would enjoy a brush across the country quite as well as he himself.
glosses: A short contest, or trial, of speed.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: An instrument, resembling a brush, used to produce a soft sound from drums or cymbals.
examples: text: Your bitmap image appears along the painted stroke. If you'd like to permanently create a custom sprite brush, it's fairly easy to adapt an existing MEL file[…].
ref: 2007, Lee Lanier, Maya Professional Tips and Techniques, page 12:
topics: computer-graphics
computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: An on-screen tool for "painting" a particular colour or texture.
examples: text: to download brushes for Photoshop
topics: computer-graphics
computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
coordinate_terms: texture
glosses: A set of defined design and parameters that produce drawn strokes of a certain texture and quality.
topics: video-games
glosses: In 3D video games, a convex polyhedron, especially one that defines structure of the play area.
topics: card-games
poker
glosses: The floorperson of a poker room, usually in a casino.
qualifier: North Wisconsin
glosses: Evergreen boughs, especially balsam, locally cut and baled for export, usually for use in making wreaths.
Derived terms: airbrush
air-brush
air brush
antelope brush
as daft as a brush
badgerbrush
bath-brush
beard brush
beebrush
bitterbrush
bog brush
bottle brush
bottlebrush
bristle brush
broad-brush
broad brush
brushability
brush away
brushbar
brush blade
brush border
brush bow
brush coral
brush cuckoo
brush cut
brushcutter
brush-down
brush fence
brushfinch
brush-fire
brush fire
brushfire
brush-footed butterfly
brushful
brush-furred mouse
brush hook
brushland
brushless
brushlike
brushmaker
brushmaking
brush-making
brushman
brushmark
brush one's teeth
brush past
brush-pen
brush pen
brushproof
brush rabbit
brush something under the rug
brushstroke
brushtail
brush-tailed
brush-tailed penguin
brush-tailed phascogale
brush-tailed porcupine
brush-tailed possum
brush talk
brush truck
brush turkey
brush-turkey
brush up
brush-up
brush up to
brush warbler
brushware
brushwheel
brush wheel
brushwise
brush wolf
brushwood
brushwork
brushy
buckbrush
butt-brush effect
camel-hair brush
clothes-brush
clothesbrush
clothes brush
cobweb brush
comb-brush
coyote brush
cryobrush
cytobrush
daft as a brush
dandy brush
drybrush
dustbrush
dustpan and brush
flesh brush
give someone the brush-off
gun brush
hairbrush
hair-brush
hatbrush
horsebrush
inkbrush
kabuki brush
lampbrush
lens brush
live over the brush
mad as a brush
microbrush
mushroom brush
nailbrush
paintbrush
paint with a broad brush
paint with a wide brush
paint with the same brush
pot scrubber brush
rabbitbrush
red brush
sage brush
sagebrush
scouring brush
scratchbrush
scrub brush
scrubbing brush
shave brush
shaving brush
shoe brush
slicker brush
snowbrush
sponge brush
spool brush
spoolie brush
tar-brush
tarbrush
tar with the same brush
toilet brush
toothbrush
touch of the tar brush
underbrush
wire-brush
wire brush