scrubs

scrubs is the plural of scrub.

Noun

scrubs pl (plural only, attributive scrub)

(plural, plural-only) Clothing worn while performing surgery.

Synonyms:

surgical gown
(broadly, plural, plural-only) Any medical uniform consisting of a short-sleeved shirt and pants (trousers).
- A man dressed as a lab tech, his blue scrubs startlingly pale against the vivid red and black chaos, moved into sight from behind the SUV. He carried an assault rifle.2014, Jeff Jacobson, Growth, page 23

scrub (countable and uncountable, plural scrubs)

(uncountable) A thicket or jungle, often specified by the name of the prevailing plant.
- oak scrub
(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
(countable, derogatory, slang) One who is incompetent or unable to complete easy tasks.
- Wow, she really scored 0? What a scrub!
(countable, slang) One not on the first team of players; a substitute.

attributive	scrub

What does scrubs mean?: Scrubs means clothing worn while performing surgery.
What is scrubs the plural of?: Scrubs is the plural of scrub.
What part of speech is scrubs?: Scrubs is a noun.

Adapted from Wiktionary: scrubs (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: 2026-09-02

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