Word.ws English Dictionary

brushes up

brushes up is the third-person singular simple present indicative of brush up.

Meaning of brush up

Verb

brush up (third-person singular simple present brushes up, present participle brushing up, simple past and past participle brushed up)

  1. To paint, or make clean or bright with a brush.
    • April 10, 1706, Alexander Pope, letter to William Wycherley
      You have commissioned me to paint your shop, and I have done my best to brush you up like your neighbours.
  2. (idiomatic) To review; to improve an existing but rusty or underdeveloped skill.
    • I'll need to brush up (on) my Greek before my trip to Athens.
    Synonyms:
    rub up
  3. (slang, transitive) To beat up, annoy or insult (someone).

Questions about brushes up

What is brushes up the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Brushes up is the third-person singular simple present indicative of brush up.

Words near brushes up in the dictionary

  1. brushes out
  2. brushes over
  3. brushes past
  4. brushes something under the carpet
  5. brushes something under the rug
  6. brushes up
  7. brushes up to
  8. brushesful
  9. brushest
  10. brusheth
  11. Brushfield spot

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brushes up (page history and authors); brush up (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “brushes up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brushes_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.