Word.ws English Dictionary

rub up the wrong way

rub up the wrong way verb: to annoy or anger someone.

Verb

rub up the wrong way (third-person singular simple present rubs up the wrong way, present participle rubbing up the wrong way, simple past and past participle rubbed up the wrong way)

  1. (figuratively, idiomatic, transitive) To annoy or anger someone.

Forms of rub up the wrong way

third-person singular presentrubs up the wrong way
present participlerubbing up the wrong way
past participlerubbed up the wrong way
pastrubbed up the wrong way

Questions about rub up the wrong way

What does rub up the wrong way mean?
Rub up the wrong way means to annoy or anger someone.
What part of speech is rub up the wrong way?
Rub up the wrong way is a verb.
What is the past tense of rub up the wrong way?
The past tense of rub up the wrong way is rubbed up the wrong way.

Words near rub up the wrong way in the dictionary

  1. rub someone's nose in
  2. rub the fear of God into
  3. rub up
  4. rub up against
  5. rub up on
  6. rub up the wrong way
  7. rub ups
  8. rub-a-dub
  9. rub-a-dubs
  10. rub-board
  11. rub-boardist

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rub up the wrong way (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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