brush
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
card-games
computer-graphics
computing
engineering
entertainment
lifestyle
mathematics
music
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
poker
sciences
video-games
zoology
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *bʰers-
Proto-Indo-European *-tis
Proto-Indo-European *bʰr̥stís
Proto-Germanic *burstiz
Frankish *burstibor.
Vulgar Latin *brustia
Old French broissebor.
Middle English brusshe
English brush
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-.
Inflected forms:
form: brushes
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: brushes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: brushing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: brushed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: brushed
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: The act of brushing something.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: She gave her hair a quick brush.
as leaves
Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush
Fell from their boughs
gloss: A piece of conductive material, usually carbon, serving to maintain electrical contact between the stationary and rotating parts of a machine.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A brush-like electrical discharge of sparks.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: 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.
gloss: Wild vegetation, generally larger than grass but smaller than trees. See shrubland.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: 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.
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.
gloss: A short, possibly recurrent encounter or experience.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: brush with death
He has had brushes with communism from time to time.
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.
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.
gloss: The furry tail of an animal, especially of a fox.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: 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.
We terrified the mare and foal;
 The fox stood still and far too bold -
So we strung him up, brush neatly folded
 Mayhem, maybe.
gloss: A tuft of hair on the mandibles.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A short contest, or trial, of speed.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
countable
uncountable
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.
[…] got into a brush with a fast British cutter as they approached Cowes […]
gloss: An instrument, resembling a brush, used to produce a soft sound from drums or cymbals.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: An on-screen tool for "painting" a particular colour or texture.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: 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[…].
gloss: A set of defined design and parameters that produce drawn strokes of a certain texture and quality.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: to download brushes for Photoshop
gloss: In 3D video games, a convex polyhedron, especially one that defines structure of the play area.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: The floorperson of a poker room, usually in a casino.
pos: noun
tags: countable
slang
uncountable
gloss: Evergreen boughs, especially balsam, locally cut and baled for export, usually for use in making wreaths.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
gloss: To clean with a brush.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Brush your teeth.
gloss: To untangle or arrange with a brush.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Brush your hair.
gloss: To apply with a brush.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: I am brushing the paint onto the walls.
gloss: To remove with a sweeping motion.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: She brushed the flour off my clothes.
Caliban: As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd / With raven's feather from unwholesome fen / Drop on you both![…]
gloss: To touch with a sweeping motion, or lightly in passing.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
examples: Her scarf brushed his skin.
Some spread their sails, some with strong oars sweep / The waters smooth, and brush the buxom wave.
Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings.
Maybe you will find a love that you discover accidentally, who falls against you gently as a pickpocket brushes your thigh.
gloss: To clean one's teeth by brushing them.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Of course, Halloween does not have to be completely treatless. Plain chocolate candy is okay, provided you remember to brush afterwards.
Related words: broom
comb
Derived words: 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
brushbot
brush bow
brush bronzewing
brush coral
brush cuckoo
brush cut
brushcutter
brush-down
brush fence
brushfinch
brushfire
brush-fire
brush fire
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 mouse
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
Brushy Creek
buckbrush
butt-brush effect
camel-hair brush
Cedar Brush Creek
clothes-brush
clothesbrush
clothes brush
cobweb brush
comb-brush
coyote brush
cryobrush
cytobrush
daft as a brush
dandy brush
drybrush
dustbrush
dustpan and brush
finger brush
flesh brush
give someone the brush-off
gun brush
hair-brush
hairbrush
hatbrush
horsebrush
inkbrush
kabuki brush
lampbrush
lens brush
live over the brush
mad as a brush
microbrush
Mungo Brush
mushroom brush
nailbrush
paintbrush
paint with a broad brush
paint with a wide brush
paint with the same brush
Possum Brush
pot scrubber brush
rabbitbrush
red brush
sagebrush
sage brush
scouring brush
scratchbrush
scratch-brush
scratch brush
scrub brush
scrubbing brush
shave brush
shaving brush
shoe brush
shoe shine brush
shoeshine brush
slicker brush
snowbrush
sponge brush
spool brush
spoolie brush
tar-brush
tarbrush
tar with the same brush
toilet brush
tongue brush
toothbrush
touch of the tar brush
underbrush
western brush wallaby
wire-brush
wire brush
brush head
brushable
brush aside
brush back
brushback
brush by
brush down
brushed
brusher
brush-off
brush off
brush out
brush over
brush something under the carpet
overbrush
rebrush
unbrush
Translations: