Word.ws English Dictionary

rubbed it in

rubbed it in is the simple past and past participle of rub it in.

Meaning of rub it in

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

Questions about rubbed it in

What is rubbed it in the simple past and past participle of?
Rubbed it in is the simple past and past participle of rub it in.

Words near rubbed it in in the dictionary

  1. rubbed along
  2. rubbed away
  3. rubbed down
  4. rubbed elbows
  5. rubbed in
  6. rubbed it in
  7. rubbed off
  8. rubbed off on
  9. rubbed one off
  10. rubbed one out
  11. rubbed one's face with a brass candlestick

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rubbed it in (page history and authors); 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.

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