scrub

/skɹʌb/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Ireland/skɹʊb/

scrub adjective: mean; dirty; contemptible; scrubby. Also the attributive form of scrubs.

Adjective

scrub (comparative more scrub, superlative most scrub)

(obsolete) Mean; dirty; contemptible; scrubby.
- How solitary, how scrub, does this town look!1743, Horace Walpole, letter to Sir Horace Mann
- No little scrub joint shall come on my board.1729, Jonathan Swift, The Grand Question Debated of Hamilton's Bawn

Noun (1)

scrub (countable and uncountable, plural scrubs)

(uncountable) A thicket or jungle, often specified by the name of the prevailing plant.
- oak scrub
- I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big...1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
(uncountable) Vegetation judged to be of inferior quality or of little use to humans, though sometimes thick and impenetrable, growing in poor soil or in sand; also, brush.
(US, countable, stock breeding) One of the common livestock of a region of no particular breed or not of pure breed, especially when inferior in size, etc.; particularly a male animal poorly suited for breeding.
(countable, derogatory) One who labors hard and lives meanly.
- A sorry scrub, said Mr. High-mind.1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress
- We should go there in as proper a manner possible; nor altogether like the scrubs about us.1766, Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield
(countable, derogatory, slang) One who is incompetent or unable to complete easy tasks.
- Wow, she really scored 0? What a scrub!
- A scrub is a guy that thinks he's fly
  And is also known as a buster
  Always talkin' about what he wants
  And just sits on his broke ass […]1999 February 2, TLC, “No Scrubs”
(countable, slang) One not on the first team of players; a substitute.
(Internet, countable, derogatory, slang) A player who whines when outmatched by other players, sometimes by blaming the game mechanics or even accusing the other players of cheating.

Verb

scrub (third-person singular simple present scrubs, present participle scrubbing, simple past and past participle scrubbed)

(transitive) To rub hard; to wash with rubbing; usually, to rub with a wet brush, sponge or with something coarse or rough, for the purpose of cleaning or brightening.
- to scrub a floor with a cleanser
- to scrub your fingernails
Synonyms:

clean, rub, scour, wash
1. (intransitive, transitive) To rub anything vigorously, especially with a wet brush; to scour.
  - She has been scrubbing for an hour, but the stain won't come out.
2. (intransitive, transitive) Synonym of scrub in (“To thoroughly wash one's hands and forearms in preparation for performing a surgery”).
  - The surgeon readied himself, dressing, scrubbing and checking his notes for the next patient.
3. (figuratively, intransitive, transitive) To be diligent and penurious.
  - I've had to scrub hard for a living
(transitive) To eliminate or remove (something); to render (something) unretrievable.
- I will scrub the inefficiencies out of the system.
- We scrubbed the low performers from the team.
1. (transitive) To call off (a scheduled event); to cancel (something).
  - Engineers had to scrub the satellite launch due to bad weather.
  - The project has been scrubbed in the latest budget.
2. (transitive, auditing) To check data in invoices and other records in order to find, fix, document or otherwise handle anomalies, errors or omissions.
  - Scrub the billing files.
3. (transitive) To study in great detail a contract or other agreement in order to identify and remove risks, liability or other issues.
4. (transitive) To eliminate or correct (data) from a set of records to bring it inline with other similar datasets.
  - The street segment data from the National Post Office will need to be scrubbed before it can be integrated into our system.
5. (transitive) To remove unflattering or unhelpful information from (something).
  - She's scrubbing her social media accounts before the background check begins.
6. (transitive) To remove impurities from a gas or vapor.
  - The gas passed through towers T1 and T2 in series and was scrubbed counter-currently with dilute H2SO4 to recover ammonia.1932 January, Floyd B. Hobart and D. J. Demorest, Bulletin, numbers 57-69, Engineering Experiment Station of the Ohio State University, page 11
To move or manipulate (something) with an action analogous to scrubbing.
- scrub the ground (dance move)
1. To play a video game without skills; to button mash.
2. To move a recording tape back and forth with a scrubbing motion to produce a scratching sound, or to do so by a similar use of a control on an editing system.
3. To maneuver the play position on a media editing system by using a scroll bar or touch-based interface.
4. To move the arms alongside a horse's head in sync with its stride, as to urge it forward.
5. (intransitive, driving) To shudder when taking tight turns or hitting bumps due to wheel misalignment, cold weather or problems with the suspension.
  - The greater the height of the pavement edge, the more likely the tire is to scrub along the edge. The smaller the tread and sidewall heights of the tire, the more likely the tire is to scrub.2022, Nathan Rose, Motorcycle Accident Reconstruction, SAE International, page 168
6. (transitive) Synonym of scrub in (“To break in new racing tires by doing a few gentle laps on them.”)
7. (transitive) To ride so as to lean horizontally when ascending a slope in order to jump the dirtbike.

Noun (2)

scrub (plural scrubs)

An instance of scrubbing.
A cancellation.
- Unacceptable winds aloft caused four scrubs and one hold; adverse weather caused a scrub; […]1988, AIAA 26th Aerospace Sciences Meeting: January 11-14
A worn-out brush.
- A scrub [broom worn out] Scopa detrita.1752, Robert Ainsworth, Thesaurus Linguae Latinae Compendiarius
One who scrubs.
That which scrubs.
1. An exfoliant for the body.
(obsolete, slang) Informal attire or dress code; morning dress.
- The third, which was as homely as its name, and which she reserved for scouring the country and such like rough usage in quite private rural life, was her "Scrub."1876, “Hightum, Titum, and Scrub!”, in The Leisure Hour
- For one of Lucia's quaint ideas was to divide dresses into three classes, "Hightum," "Tightum" and "Scrub."1920, E. F. Benson, Queen Lucia

Also used as

scrub is also the attributive form of scrubs.

scrub meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

scrub in Hindi

स्क्रब करें, स्क्रब

scrub in Tamil

ஸ்க்ரப், ஸ்க்ரப் செய்யுங்கள், ஸ்க்ரப் செய்ய

scrub in Marathi

स्क्रब करा, स्क्रब, स्क्रब करण्यासाठी

scrub in Urdu

اسکرب کریں, اسکرب

More languagesFewer languages

scrub in Bengali: স্ক্রাব করুন, স্ক্রাব, স্ক্রাব করতে
scrub in Telugu: స్క్రబ్, స్క్రబ్ చేయండి, స్క్రబ్ చేయడానికి
scrub in Malayalam: സ്ക്രബ് ചെയ്യുക, സ്ക്രബ്, സ്ക്രബ്ബ് ചെയ്യുക
scrub in Kannada: ಸ್ಕ್ರಬ್, ಸ್ಕ್ರಬ್ ಮಾಡಿ, ಸ್ಕ್ರಬ್ ಮಾಡಲು
scrub in Punjabi: ਸਕ੍ਰੱਬ, ਸਕ੍ਰੱਬ ਕਰੋ
scrub in Gujarati: ઘાસવાનુ ghāsvānu
scrub in Odia: ସ୍କ୍ରବ୍ କରନ୍ତୁ, ସ୍କ୍ରବ କରନ୍ତୁ, ସ୍କ୍ରବ୍ କରନ୍ତୁ |
scrub in Nepali: स्क्रब गर्नुहोस्, स्क्रब, स्क्रब गर्न

Examples of scrub in a sentence

to scrub the walls with a sponge
It's impossible to scrub data from the internet.
It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
I daresay we can find one of those devoted, hard-working little scrubs who are glad to come for nothing and live on the table leavings.1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London:

All 40 example sentences with scrub

Synonyms of scrub

All synonyms of scrub

Forms of scrub

Adjective
comparative	more scrub
superlative	most scrub
Noun
plural	scrubs
Verb
third-person singular present	scrubs
present participle	scrubbing
past participle	scrubbed
past	scrubbed

Past tense of scrub: scrubbed

Plural of scrub: scrubs

Origin of scrub

Late Middle English shrobbe in the sense of "stunted tree," a variant of shrub, from Old English scrybb. Doublet of shrub.

From Middle English scrobben (“groom a horse with a currycomb”); from Middle Dutch schrobben (“clean by scrubbing”).

Words formed from scrub

Words that rhyme with scrub

14 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about scrub

What does scrub mean?: Scrub means mean; dirty; contemptible; scrubby.
What is scrub in Hindi?: Scrub in Hindi is स्क्रब करें, स्क्रब. See Scrub meaning in Hindi.
How do you use scrub in a sentence?: to scrub the walls with a sponge
What part of speech is scrub?: Scrub can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce scrub?: Scrub is pronounced /skɹʌb/.

Words near scrub in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-scrub.wav.

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