Word.ws English Dictionary

rubs up on

rubs up on is the third-person singular simple present indicative of rub up on.

Meaning of rub up on

Verb

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

  1. (slang) To rub one's body against another person as a form of sexual stimulation or flirting.
    • Had to let it know that I still had baller status. So when I was on the dance floor, busting my moves, I didn't mind the shorty with the tight, tight blue mini-skirt who was rubbing up on me and leading me on.2004, Billy Jones, Everyday Folks: Short Stories on the Common People, →ISBN, page 7
  2. To stimulate, interact, or resonate with.
    • As Overbrook helped him with his coat, Babbitt said, “Nice to rub up on the old days! We must have lunch together, P.D.Q.”1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XV, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, page 201
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rub, up, on, rub up.

Questions about rubs up on

What is rubs up on the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Rubs up on is the third-person singular simple present indicative of rub up on.

Words near rubs up on in the dictionary

  1. rubs someone's face in
  2. rubs someone's nose in
  3. rubs the fear of God into
  4. rubs up
  5. rubs up against
  6. rubs up on
  7. rubs up the wrong way
  8. rubster
  9. rubsters
  10. rubstone
  11. rubstones

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rubs up on (page history and authors); rub up on (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: “rubs up on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rubs_up_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.