Word.ws English Dictionary

scrubbed

scrubbed is the simple past and past participle of scrub.

Adjective

scrubbed (comparative more scrubbed, superlative most scrubbed)

  1. Dwarfed or stunted; scrubby.
  2. Having been scrubbed; having received a scrubbing.
    • The stain was scrubbed off by Marsha.
  3. Having been made to seem wholesome or virtuous due to public relations, censorship or similar methods.
    • They specialize in ensuring celebrities a scrubbed public image.
  4. (not comparable) Dressed in scrubs; with hands washed according to operating room protocol and wearing sterile gown and sterile gloves.
    • But it wasn’t the sterile walls of the hospital I expected: no stirrups, no beeping monitors, no scrubbed nurses in face masks.1998, Shannon Friesen, “Afterbirth”, in Like Minds, Fredericton, N.B.: Broken Jaw Press, →ISBN, page 67
  5. Synonym of scrubbed up (Cleaned up; dressed up; having been made smart).
    • He looked better than usual, reasonably scrubbed, but he still needed a better wardrobe.
    Synonyms:
    scrubbed up

Meaning of scrub

Verb

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

  1. (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
    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
  2. (transitive) To eliminate or remove (something); to render (something) unretrievable.
    • I will scrub the inefficiencies out of the system.
    1. (transitive) To call off (a scheduled event); to cancel (something).
      • Engineers had to scrub the satellite launch due to bad weather.

See all 34 meanings of scrub

Synonyms of scrubbed

Forms of scrubbed

comparativemore scrubbed
superlativemost scrubbed

Origin of scrubbed

From scrub + -ed.

Phrases with scrubbed

Questions about scrubbed

What does scrubbed mean?
Scrubbed means dwarfed or stunted; scrubby.
What is scrubbed the simple past and past participle of?
Scrubbed is the simple past and past participle of scrub.
What part of speech is scrubbed?
Scrubbed is an adjective.

Words near scrubbed in the dictionary

  1. scrub wallaby
  2. scrub wren
  3. scrub wrens
  4. scrubbability
  5. scrubbable
  6. scrubbed
  7. scrubbed down
  8. scrubbed in
  9. scrubbed out
  10. scrubbed up
  11. scrubber

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scrubbed (page history and authors); scrub (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-scrubbed.wav.

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