Past tense of rub
regular verb
The past tense of rub is rubbed. The past participle is also rubbed.
Forms of rub
| Base form (V1) | rub /ɹʌb/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | rubbed /ˈɹʌbd/ |
| Past participle (V3) | rubbed /ˈɹʌbd/ |
| Present participle | rubbing /ˈɹʌbɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | rubs |
Rubbed in a sentence
- I rubbed the cloth over the glass.
- The cat rubbed itself against my leg.
- The farmer grabbed a handful of sacking and rubbed down the cow.From the entry sacking
- She accidentally rubbed up against the painted door and got green paint on her blouse.From the entry rub up against
- Tibbles the cat rubbed up against my leg, asking for a piece of my cheese.From the entry rub up against
Meaning of rub
- noun An act of rubbing.
- noun A difficulty or problem.
- noun A quip or sarcastic remark.
Questions about the past tense of rub
- What is the past tense of rub?
- The past tense of rub is rubbed.
- What is the past participle of rub?
- The past participle of rub is rubbed.
- Is rub a regular or irregular verb?
- Rub is a regular verb: its past tense doubles the last letter and adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: rub (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of rub.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/rub. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.