Word.ws English Dictionary

rub it in

rub it in verb: to add insult to injury; to emphasize one's strengths or another's weaknesses in a manner that degrades another.

Verb

rub it in (third-person singular simple present rubs it in, present participle rubbing it in, simple past and past participle rubbed it in)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To add insult to injury; to emphasize one's strengths or another's weaknesses in a manner that degrades another.
    • Not to rub it in, but I'm working from home. So I took a swim this morning and have been thoroughly enjoying the beautiful weather.
  2. (idiomatic, informal) To labour the point.
    • "Of course it wasn't worth while rubbing it in before young Hollyer, but, as a matter of fact, every single man carries the life of any other man—only one, mind you—in his hands, do what you will."1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados

Forms of rub it in

third-person singular presentrubs it in
present participlerubbing it in
past participlerubbed it in
pastrubbed it in

Questions about rub it in

What does rub it in mean?
Rub it in means to add insult to injury; to emphasize one's strengths or another's weaknesses in a manner that degrades another.
What part of speech is rub it in?
Rub it in is a verb.
What is the past tense of rub it in?
The past tense of rub it in is rubbed it in.

Words near rub it in in the dictionary

  1. rub down
  2. rub elbows
  3. rub in
  4. rub iron
  5. rub irons
  6. rub it in
  7. rub of the green
  8. rub off
  9. rub off on
  10. rub one off
  11. rub one out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rub it in (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-rub it in.ogg.

Cite this entry: “rub it in.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rub_it_in. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.