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Rub   /rəb/   Listen
Rub

verb
(past & past part. rubbed; pres. part. rubbing)
1.
Move over something with pressure.  "Rub oil into her skin"
2.
Cause friction.  Synonyms: chafe, fray, fret, scratch.
3.
Scrape or rub as if to relieve itching.  Synonyms: itch, scratch.



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"Rub" Quotes from Famous Books



... A rough polish may be easily given to a surface which has been finished by washed flour emery, in the following manner. Turn up a disc of soft wood on the lathe, and run it at the highest wood-turning speed. Rub into the periphery a paste of sifted powdered ...
— On Laboratory Arts • Richard Threlfall

... head of it. Charles looks wretchedly, I am told, but I have scarce seen him. Richard is in high cash, and that is all I know of that infernal house. Adieu; my respects to Lady Carlisle, and my most hearty love to the children. My best compliments to Mr. and Mrs. Eden, and to Crowle, and pray rub Mr. Dean Emily's ears ...
— George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life • E. S. Roscoe and Helen Clergue

... of French conversation, written at the end of the fourteenth century for the use of Englishmen, it appears that cleanliness was not always to be found in these inns. "William," one traveller is supposed to say to another, "undress and wash your legs, and rub them well for the love of the fleas, that they may not leap on your legs; for there is a peck of them lying in the dust under the rushes.... Hi! the fleas bite me so, and do me great harm, for I have scratched my shoulders till the ...
— A Student's History of England, v. 1 (of 3) - From the earliest times to the Death of King Edward VII • Samuel Rawson Gardiner

... spattered up her bare arms to her shoulders, the little girl was valiantly attacking the weekly wash. A clothes-basket at her feet was piled with white garments awaiting the bluing. The tub was full of colored things that were receiving a second rub. Out of doors, on a line stretched between the corner of the kitchen and the high seat of the big farm wagon, flapped the drying sheets and pillow-cases. Breakfast was cleared away, the beds were made, the sitting-room was tidied, and it was not ...
— The Biography of a Prairie Girl • Eleanor Gates

... as natural as you can. I mean, if he just knocks lightly and looks in, be asleep. Don't overdo the snoring. But if he makes a hell of a noise, you'll have to wake up and rub your eyes, and wonder what on earth he's doing in your room at all. You know ...
— The Red House Mystery • A. A. Milne

... that one day within the space of two miles only, some gentlemen in canoes caught above six hundred of the former with hooks, which they let down to the bottom and drew up at a venture when they perceived them to rub against a fish; and of the latter above five thousand have been caught at one single haul of ...
— The Bounty of the Chesapeake - Fishing in Colonial Virginia • James Wharton

... Nick, honey, and go to bed. I'll pour a bucket of cistern water over you and rub you down so as you'll sleep like a bug in a rug," the staunch old comrade crooned, with a mother note in his voice, as he took father's heavy hoe and ...
— The Heart's Kingdom • Maria Thompson Daviess

... another in the school. The sick child rubs its eyes and then handles a book or pencil on which the germs are smeared by the fingers which touched the eyes. The next child picks up the same book later, gets the germs on the fingers, and then rubs the eyes. For this reason you should never rub the eyes. If you have sore eyes, be careful that no one else ...
— Health Lessons - Book 1 • Alvin Davison

... The rub lay in the fact that none of this was liable to do them much good. If they were to flee through the woods, there would certainly be time for only a shot or two when the tribesmen found them. If the rifle was to be used against the three nobles, then it was necessary, in all decency, ...
— The Barbarians • John Sentry

... that his clothing had dried to some extent during the night; so, after a brisk rub, he put on the warmed garments and though some were still a trifle damp he felt infinitely more comfortable than he had ...
— The Oakdale Affair • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... you will never die, or at any rate you will live until everybody is tired of you. Sometimes it is a new tax or a new sort of bath that is the secret key to the whole contraption. For one period he could talk of nothing but dried milk; for another, acetic acid was the thing. Rub yourself with acetic acid and you would be as invulnerable to the ills of the body as Achilles was after he had been dipped by Thetis in the waters of Styx. The stars tell him anything he wishes to believe, and he can conjure up spirits as ...
— Pebbles on the Shore • Alpha of the Plough (Alfred George Gardiner)

... natural?' JOHNSON. 'I cannot say, Sir, as we find no people quite in a state of nature; but I think the more they are taught, the more modest they are. The French are a gross, ill-bred, untaught people; a lady there will spit on the floor and rub it with her foot. What I gained by being in France was, learning to be better satisfied with my own country. Time may be employed to more advantage from nineteen to twenty-four almost in any way than in travelling; when you set travelling against mere negation, against doing nothing, it is ...
— Life of Johnson - Abridged and Edited, with an Introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood • James Boswell

... in writing this letter was that I think you rub the name of Science Fiction in the dust by printing it on such paper and in such a small magazine. If you intend to compete with your several contemporaries, you will almost have to alter your size and ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, June, 1930 • Various

... Maggie, never slow to voice an unpleasant truth, said that night, as she brought the carafe of ice-water to the library, "You're going off the last few days, Miss Agnes." And when I made no reply: "You're sagging around the chin. There's nothing shows age like the chin. If you'd rub a little lemon-juice on at night you'd ...
— The Confession • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... garments of black silk and robes of blue cloth or dyed wool, all amazed them; some insisted that the white colour of the strangers was not natural but put on"; as with Cook and so many others the savages now behaved with Cadamosto. They spat upon his arm and tried to rub off the white paint; then they wondered more than ever when they found the flesh ...
— Prince Henry the Navigator, the Hero of Portugal and of Modern Discovery, 1394-1460 A.D. • C. Raymond Beazley

... larger business than I can manage, and he saw it. Well, it worried him; he must needs mind the horse! I says to him, 'Really, General——' 'Bah!' says he, 'I am not going to eat my head off doing nothing. I learned to rub a horse down many a year ago.'—I had some bills out for the purchase money of my dairy—a fellow named Grados—Do ...
— Colonel Chabert • Honore de Balzac

... her cheek against his. Feeling that he does not rub his cheek against hers, OLIVE stands away, and looks from him to ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... nervously. "One of the first things to do for a child," he ventured, "is to git a thimble to rub on his teeth." ...
— Life at High Tide - Harper's Novelettes • Various

... had but little sleep for many hours, but I felt no weariness. My strength seemed to increase with my difficulties, and I did not once droop in my saddle or rub my eyes like a drowsy man. It must have been near a twenty miles' ride from Hayle to Mullion, but we were not long in covering it; indeed, after we had reached Helston, we rode as fast as ...
— The Birthright • Joseph Hocking

... is always a difficult one in exploring or campaigning. One can do a certain amount with alum towards rendering the water less foul. Rub the inside of a bucket with a lump of alum, and in ten minutes most of the mud sinks to the bottom, and the water is comparatively clear. But besides producing a nasty flavour in the water, if used in any quantity, the astringent alum ...
— With Methuen's Column on an Ambulance Train • Ernest N. Bennett

... But the hardest rub is coming next Saturday. That's when we're going down to the city to have our game with Alden. There'll be a big crowd out, and the Alden alumni are mighty strong around town there too, and they'll be out in bunches. We've got to keep up our ...
— Winning His "W" - A Story of Freshman Year at College • Everett Titsworth Tomlinson

... both I believe to be the truth, gospel truth, and sooner or later there's going to be trouble for him in Shuter's dive; and I'm going to be with him when it comes, although he did give me that hard rub about bein' afraid ...
— A Lover in Homespun - And Other Stories • F. Clifford Smith

... us both?" muttered Irene, in such a tone of agony that I seized her arm and began to rub for my life. I remember noticing that it was as cold and white as the arm of a marble statue. Meanwhile Irene repeated an invocation, apparently in the same language in which she had addressed me at our first meeting, and I imitated her to the best ...
— The Argosy - Vol. 51, No. 1, January, 1891 • Various

... manage with a shower, or else get Chalmers to rub you down like a horse," she told ...
— Juggernaut • Alice Campbell

... bonnet on the table, smoothed her bushy hair, and, drawing a red bandanna from her pocket, gave her long nose a vigorous rub, and settled herself in her soft chair again. Col. Malcome sat bolt upright among the furs which were piled up around him, and stared at his visitors. Yes, refined and polite though he was, he forgot his good-breeding in surprise at the coarse, singular ...
— Eventide - A Series of Tales and Poems • Effie Afton

... porcelain dish containing 10 grams of heavy magnesium oxid in suspension in 100 cc. of water. (This reagent should meet the U.S.P. requirements.) Evaporate slowly on the steam bath with frequent stirring to a dry, powdery mass. Rub the residue with a pestle into a paste with boiling water. Transfer with hot water to a smooth filter, cleaning the dish with a rubber-tipped glass rod. Collect the filtrate in a liter flask marked at 250 cc. and wash with boiling water until the filtrate reaches the mark. Add 10 cc. of 10-percent ...
— All About Coffee • William H. Ukers

... Polly; rub the rust and the strangeness off. Talk away when he is here, and have no fear ...
— Villette • Charlotte Bronte

... rub her ears. "It's a—a 'sponsibility to wash my own corners. And Mrs. Patterson says it's a disgrace ...
— Honey-Sweet • Edna Turpin

... Scithians, of y^e which I wyl shew one much like this matter. The yong gentlem is send in to y^e vniuersitie to lerne the liberall sciences. But w^t how vngentle despightes is he begun in them? Fyrst they rub his chyn, as though they wolde shaue his bearde: hereunto thei vse pisse, or if ther be any fouler thyng. This liquour is dashed into his mouth, & he may not spit it out. Wyth paynfull bobbes they make as though thei drewe hornes from him: stime he is cpelled to drinke a ...
— The Education of Children • Desiderius Erasmus

... Pussy will rub my knees with her head, Pretending she loves me hard; But the very minute I go to my bed Pussy runs out in ...
— Poems Every Child Should Know - The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library • Various

... vain for help; no one was near, even the fishermen had safely bolted their doors, and shut out the wild stormy night. A faint hope awoke in his heart as he remembered that Valmai had swooned before she was engulfed with him in the sea, and he set to work with renewed vigour to rub her cold hands, and press the water out of her long, drenched hair; he was soon rewarded by signs of life in the rigid form—a little sigh came trembling from her lips, her hand moved, and there was a tremor in her eyelids. ...
— By Berwen Banks • Allen Raine

... him, but in their haste it was at one another they struck, till they were all lying stretched in blood. Then the clown said to the gate-keeper: "Let you ask twenty cows and a hundred of free land of O'Donnell as a fee for bringing his people back to life. And take this herb," he said, "and rub it in the mouth of each man of them, and he will rise up whole and well again." So the gate-keeper did that, and he got the cows and the land from O'Donnell, and he brought all ...
— Gods and Fighting Men • Lady I. A. Gregory

... two ounces castor oil, one ounce pennyroyal oil. Simmer all together over a slow fire and bottle for use. You will hardly need more than a two-ounce vial full in a season. One ounce has lasted me six weeks in the woods. Rub it in thoroughly and liberally at first, and after you have established a good glaze, a little replenishing from day to day will be sufficient. And don't fool with soap and towels where insects are plenty. A good safe coat of this varnish grows better the longer it is kept ...
— Woodcraft • George W. Sears

... came down-stairs just when the footman was officiously struggling with the young gentleman for his burden. Dr. Campbell received his pupil very kindly; but Forester would not be prevailed upon to rub his shoes sufficiently upon the mat at the bottom of the stairs, or to change his disordered dress before he made his appearance in the drawing-room. He entered with dirty shoes, a threadbare coat, and hair that looked ...
— Tales And Novels, Volume 1 • Maria Edgeworth

... curved, as her evening dress fully revealed it. Yes, a charming, most ladylike figure. And the skin of her face, of neck and shoulders, was beautifully white, and of the texture suggesting that it will rub if too impetuously caressed. Yes, a man would hesitate to kiss her unless he were well shaved. At the very thought of kissing her Grant felt a thrill and a glow she had never before roused in him. She had an abundance of blue-black hair, and it and her slender black brows and long ...
— The Fashionable Adventures of Joshua Craig • David Graham Phillips

... Emilie watched him rub the hurt place in silence. Then he got up on his fat legs and went to the desk, where he stood patiently, his round face very red and solemn, while he waited ...
— Jewel's Story Book • Clara Louise Burnham

... word, but uttered ugly growls; and she heard his hands rub and grope along the wall, against herself. She pulled open the door of her bedroom and fled up the stairs and fell in a heap in the corner beside her bed. There she sat waiting, out of breath.... Yes, his heavy shoes had found the steps; ...
— The Path of Life • Stijn Streuvels

... afflicted if anybody hurts or kills a porcupine in their presence. They say, "They have killed our brother, our master, one of ourselves, him whom we sing of"; and so saying they piously gather the quills of their murdered brother, spit on them, and rub their eyebrows with them. They think they would die if they touched its flesh. In like manner Bechuanas of the Crocodile clan call the crocodile one of themselves, their master, their brother; and they mark the ears of their cattle with ...
— Darwin and Modern Science • A.C. Seward and Others

... now going respectably enough side by side; now they were among the grassy knolls, and behind one of them they disappeared from his sight. He thoughtfully directed the telescope to the other side of the hillock and waited. "What now?" muttered he, giving the glass another rub. They had not yet come from behind the hillock. For a few minutes the father was quite nervous. At last he saw one form raise ...
— Garman and Worse - A Norwegian Novel • Alexander Lange Kielland

... other for as much gold as would go into all the sacks that could be sewn by all the needles (and those of the smallest size) that could be crammed into Notre-Dame from the floor to the ceiling, filling the smallest crannies. Yet neither had a crust that night to rub his ...
— The Path to Rome • Hilaire Belloc

... unfamiliar to him. It seemed to have no weight, and at times his hands would appear to swell swiftly to the size of mammoth boxing-gloves, so that he must rub them together to feel that ...
— The Pit • Frank Norris

... myself drenched with rain. I had slept so long and so soundly that I had, at first, but a very confused notion of my situation; but having a bright idea that my horse had been my companion when I went to sleep, I was rather startled at finding that I was now alone; nor could I rub my eyes clear enough to procure a sight of him, which was vexatious enough; for, independent of his value as a horse, his services were indispensable; and an adjutant might as well think of going into action without his arms as without such a supporter. But whatever ...
— Adventures in the Rifle Brigade, in the Peninsula, France, and the Netherlands - from 1809 to 1815 • Captain J. Kincaid

... to a liquid, then cast into thin cakes on a flat surface very slightly oiled, and, as it cools, cut up into pieces of a convenient size. When you wish to use it moisten one end in the mouth, and rub it on any substance you wish to join; a piece kept in the work-box is ...
— The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, Volume 1, January, 1880 • Various

... the old woman lay down on the bed. "Oh, my back! Oh, my poor back! How it does ache," groaned she. "Come hither and rub it." ...
— Tales of Folk and Fairies • Katharine Pyle

... old owners are but lying asleep in their many storied gothic palaces, their vaulted courtyards, and shady loggias; ready to rub their eyes and come out as they hear the well-known sounds ringing ...
— Soap-Bubble Stories - For Children • Fanny Barry

... shut in the better part of six hours and time proved a bit slow. I remember coming to the conclusion that perhaps the people I'd left behind weren't so utterly unreasonable after all. I fancy it's a rather sure sign that when you can't rub along with anybody, the trouble isn't ...
— The Spanish Chest • Edna A. Brown

... it be done with a soft sponge and with care. If there be any difficulty in removing the substance, gently rub it, by means of a flannel, [Footnote: Mrs Baines (who has written so much and so well on the Management of Children), in a Letter to the Author, recommends flannel to be used in the first washing of an infant, which flannel ought afterwards to be burned; ...
— Advice to a Mother on the Management of her Children • Pye Henry Chavasse

... it could catch me," said Rag, with the pride of youth as he rose on his heels to rub his chin and whiskers high up on a smooth sapling. Rag did not know he was doing this, but his mother saw and knew it was a sign, like the changing of a boy's voice, that her little one was no longer a baby but would soon ...
— Lobo, Rag and Vixen - Being The Personal Histories Of Lobo, Redruff, Raggylug & Vixen • Ernest Seton-Thompson

... set on. This palt'ring Becomes not Rome; nor has Coriolanus Deserv'd this so dishonour'd rub, laid falsely I' the plain ...
— The Tragedy of Coriolanus • William Shakespeare [Collins edition]

... Found in 1953 by the Field Corps for Historical Research, these strakes are obviously from rear wheels. Though dimensions were by no means standardized, front wheels were always smaller, so that in turning the wagon the tires would be less likely to rub the sides of ...
— Conestoga Wagons in Braddock's Campaign, 1755 • Don H. Berkebile

... boys. Remove the harness and give 'em a good rub down. Don't water or feed 'em till they're cool. They're spanking 'plugs,' Lablache," he added, as he watched the horses being led down to the barn. "Come inside. Had breakfast?" rising and knocking the dust from the ...
— The Story of the Foss River Ranch • Ridgwell Cullum

... And there's the rub: rebind your book and—in nine cases out of ten—you will lower its market value. Therefore, if the book-collector have any eye to the purely commercial value of his library, he will do well to become an ...
— The Book-Hunter at Home • P. B. M. Allan

... withstanding his giantly condition, was, as I have hinted, a man of craft. He was not a man to ruffle the vanity of General Van Poffenburgh, or to rub his self-conceit against the grain. On the contrary, as he sailed up the Delaware, he paused before Fort Casimir, displayed his flag, and fired a royal salute before dropping anchor. The salute would doubtless have been returned, had not the guns been dismounted; as it was, a veteran ...
— Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete • Washington Irving

... for about ten minutes in the direction of the large bowel is sometimes very effective in overcoming constipation; begin in the right groin and rub up as far as the border of the ribs, then across to the left, then ...
— The Four Epochs of Woman's Life • Anna M. Galbraith

... all) as the Devil? And if He were merciful, would He, for the one disobedient act of one human being, have condemned to the most ghastly and diabolical sufferings, millions of human beings, and not only human beings, but animals? Ah! that's where the rub comes in, for though there may be some sense, if not justice, in causing men and women, who have sinned—to suffer, there is surely neither reason nor justice in making animals, ...
— Byways of Ghost-Land • Elliott O'Donnell

... copper style may then be placed in the canal to keep it open, as also to direct the tears through the natural route. This being done, and the dog confined in such a way as not to be able to scratch or rub the eye, the fistulous opening might close up in a short time. However, it might be necessary to wear the style for many months. In such a case, we see no reason why a wire muzzle, such as used by us after the operation for Entropium, might ...
— The Dog - A nineteenth-century dog-lovers' manual, - a combination of the essential and the esoteric. • William Youatt

... the custom, from the earliest ages, to rub the inside of the hive with a handful of salt and clover, or some other grass or sweet-scented herb, previously to the swarm's being put in the hive. We have seen no advantage in this; on the contrary, it gives a great deal of unnecessary labour to the bees, as they will ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 357 - Vol. XIII, No. 357., Saturday, February 21, 1829 • Various

... possible reason there might be for the lad's sudden change of temper. He sat long, and many crude notions trotted through his brain. At last he recalled the fact that he had said something about Jabez's snout carrying a swine ring. That was the rub, sure enough. "I mak' no doobt he thowt it was ...
— A Son of Hagar - A Romance of Our Time • Sir Hall Caine

... seized on my soul one Sabbath day, when I was at play, being one of the first that I had, which when it came, though it scared me with its terror, yet through the temptation of the devil, immediately striking in therewith, I did rub it off again, and became as vile for some time as I was before, like a ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... said, "I have nothing in the house, but I have spun a little cotton and will go and sell it." Aladdin bade her keep her cotton, for he would sell the lamp instead. As it was very dirty she began to rub it, that it might fetch a higher price. Instantly a hideous genie appeared, and asked what she would have. She fainted away, but Aladdin, snatching the lamp, said boldly: "Fetch me something to eat!" The genie returned with a silver bowl, twelve silver plates containing rich meats, ...
— The Blue Fairy Book • Various

... here or there Matters but little. Not to listen to thee, And on a point of such importance, Hafi, There lies the rub. Not even to admire Thine eagle eye—thy comprehensive glance - That calls for vengeance: —does it ...
— Nathan the Wise • Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

... bones of the Forearm, but Spike Nails have pretty well supplyd the place of these. With these ordinary Tools, that a European would expect to break the first stroke, I have seen them work surprisingly fast. To plain or polish their work they rub upon it, with a small stone, Coral Beat small and Mixed with Water; this is done sometimes by scraping it with Shells, with which alone they perform most ...
— Captain Cook's Journal During the First Voyage Round the World • James Cook

... and only time on record Willie Dart stopped his flow of words because of the look he saw on a man's face. He went out snatching his book from the table as he passed. On his way to the bunk house he stopped long enough to shake his head and rub his chin. ...
— The Short Cut • Jackson Gregory

... He's quite tame, Although he's said to be a sort of game. You scorn him, yet you must—ah, there's the rub— Accept him at your table or your club. He has his points, yet he's a pest, indeed; I would we could ...
— A Phenomenal Fauna • Carolyn Wells

... their quarter. Besides, as we have already seen, the Fighting Nigger usually chose to be alone when out on expeditions of this kind, partly because his instinct told him that if he would keep in good odor with his white superiors he must not rub against them more than occasion should absolutely demand, but chiefly that he might enjoy the undivided honor of the scalps taken by his own hand in war, should such be his good fortune. So, making a third squad of himself and dog, the black hunter detached ...
— Burl • Morrison Heady

... what she was doing. It happened that she was trying to rub away a flaw in the window-glass with her pocket hand-kerchief—a flaw which must have been an old friend, as such things are in quiet lives. At this occupation she found herself when her heart began to ...
— From One Generation to Another • Henry Seton Merriman

... about four days. The firkins had to be headed up and gotten ready. This job in my time usually fell to Hiram. He would begin the day before Father was to start and have a load headed and placed in the wagon on time, with straw between the firkins so they would not rub. How many times I have heard those loads start off over the frozen ground in the morning before it was light! Sometimes a neighbour's wagon would go slowly jolting by just after or just before Father had started, but on the same errand. Father usually ...
— My Boyhood • John Burroughs

... there he is fallin' in love with 'Liza Em'ly, the last girl in the world as he'd ought to even dream of marryin', an' I talk to him an' talk to him, an' tell him so, an' tell him so, an' it don't make no more impression than when you rub a cat ...
— Susan Clegg and a Man in the House • Anne Warner

... of flesh covered with hair, and armed with two nails which terminated the foot bones. The fly, having cleaned his brushes or sponges,—for they were as much like one as the other,—employing his trunk very skilfully, began to rub them over and under his wings, and over his little face, his eyes, and his antennae. He combed, brushed, sponged, and cleaned himself all over. Hardly had he finished one side before he began upon ...
— Piccolissima • Eliza Lee Follen

... could chafe. I then dealt with his hands in the like manner, having once been shipmate with a seaman who told me he had seen a sailor brought to by severe rubbing of his extremities after he had been carried below supposed to be frozen to death, and continued this exercise till I could rub no longer. Next I opened his lips and, finding he wanted some of his front teeth, I very easily poured a dram of brandy into his mouth. Though I preserved my astonishment all this while, I soon discovered myself working with enthusiasm, with a most passionate longing indeed ...
— The Frozen Pirate • W. Clark Russell

... warriors, though the observation itself did not amount to much, nor could the one to whom it was addressed see why it should be made at all. He, therefore, remained silent, feeling as though he would like to rub some of the bruised portions of his body, but too dignified ...
— Footprints in the Forest • Edward Sylvester Ellis

... somehow, to the boards, and it is a little surprising that seventy-four years should have elapsed, after the publication of the first English translation, before 'Don Quixote' received the distinction of dramatization. Was it, indeed, a distinction? There's the rub. The dramatist was Thomas d'Urfey; and what could be looked for from that free-speaking worthy? The original is not without a certain breadth in certain passages, and what Cervantes made broad D'Urfey might be trusted to make broader. That, again, was only according ...
— By-ways in Book-land - Short Essays on Literary Subjects • William Davenport Adams

... in a level voice): Thin eyebrows, with white marks, where they was pulled out ... to be in the fashion, you know.... Her mouth ... a bit thin as well, with red stuff painted round it, to make it look more; you can rub it off ... I suppose. Her neck ... rather thick. Laughs a bit loud; and then it stops. (After a pause) She's ... very lively. (With a quick smile that dispels the atmosphere he has unaccountably created) You can't say I don't keep ...
— Night Must Fall • Williams, Emlyn

... there were deep differences in the famous artistic life. Miriam was already in a glow of glory—which, moreover, was probably but a faint spark in relation to the blaze to come; and as he closed the door on her and took up his palette to rub it with a dirty cloth the little room in which his own battle was practically to be fought looked woefully cold and grey and mean. It was lonely and yet at the same time was peopled with unfriendly shadows—so thick he foresaw them gather ...
— The Tragic Muse • Henry James

... can, you twig? And say that when I 'eard that nearly all the gay old crowd o' pupils 'ad gone away, day before yesterday, I could 'a blooming well cut me throat, thinkin' she'd gone too. Becos' when I swore in for the Town Guard, it was with the idear—mind you rub that in!—of strikin' a blow for Beauty as well as for Britanniar, twig?" The thin elbow in the tweed sleeve nudged her, provoking a ...
— The Dop Doctor • Clotilde Inez Mary Graves

... White, you liar! Shut up, will you? You might hurt me seriously. Go away. I hate you! Oh, hang it!"—(this was when the books struck him on the elbow),—"it hurts, Moles. Leave off, while I rub my elbow." ...
— Tell England - A Study in a Generation • Ernest Raymond

... and alumni of Harvard rub elbows with City Hall politicians, and farmers from Kansas and Pennsylvania exchange market ...
— Ainslee's, Vol. 15, No. 6, July 1905 • Various

... one held the child for me. (A grown-up woman?) I grasp it, but do not know whether I have hit it, for I suddenly find myself in the middle of the stairway where I practice coitus with the child (in the air as it were). It is really no coitus, I only rub my genital on her external genital, and in doing this I see it very distinctly, as distinctly as I see her head which is lying sideways. During the sexual act I see hanging to the left and above me (also as if in the air) two small pictures, landscapes, representing a house on a green. ...
— Dream Psychology - Psychoanalysis for Beginners • Sigmund Freud

... latter was one with Johnson, who was his room-mate, and who, being four years older than himself, undertook, for fun, to rub his face with a newly-purchased hair-brush. This kind of fun did not suit Willard, however, and he resented it by giving Johnson a "dig" in the ribs. Whereupon a fight ensued in earnest, and as Willard was too young and light to keep up the contest at close quarters, he dodged his adversary ...
— Sword and Pen - Ventures and Adventures of Willard Glazier • John Algernon Owens

... to shave, Mally?" queried a voice across the flat. "Because I'm not sure I shouldn't be better for a bit of a scrape myself. Can I have a rub ...
— The Long Trick • Lewis Anselm da Costa Ritchie

... I will have much to tell you. I have been in the Far East—poor Tante would have wept with joy over the beauty of the Flowery Kingdom. I have bowed before enough emperors and kings to make my poor back ache. Do you remember how you used to rub the kinks out of it? I have spent hours and hours with the great men of the world. I have seen wonderful beauty and glorious sunshine. (How I'd like to ship some of it to old New York.) And I have seen ugly things, too. We shall have great times ...
— Keineth • Jane D. Abbott

... They have no planes, and smooth wood with a chisel. Their business is to make musical instruments for the Gonds, which consist of hollow pieces of wood covered with skin to act as single or double drums. They use sheep and goat-skins, and after letting them dry scrape off the hair and rub them with a paste of boiled rice and powdered ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India—Volume I (of IV) • R.V. Russell

... equally great at the complexion of his sable companion. They could not believe it was natural, and tried to rub off the imaginary dye with their hands. As the African bore all this with characteristic good-humor, displaying at the same time his rows of ivory teeth, they were prodigiously delighted.13 The animals ...
— History Of The Conquest Of Peru • William Hickling Prescott

... easy to read as it looks now we're writing it over. For "The Theory and Practise of Gardening" made you rub your eyes and groan, it was such a puzzling sort of book. To begin with its type was bewildering with its s's all turned like f's and its italics so thin you could scarcely decipher them. Besides that, ...
— Little Miss By-The-Day • Lucille Van Slyke

... with Drew, where our words concerning his identity would be taken. And what an advertisement this would be for the great author. The Sybarites, now selling by thousands, would increase its sales to ten thousands. Ah, there was the rub. The clue to his remaining in the cave was this very kink in the Celebrity's character. There was nothing Bohemian in that character; it yearned after the eminently respectable. Its very eccentricities were within the limits of good form. The Celebrity ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... caught me and brought me here to the circus; and now I like it very much. I, too, tried to scratch the man when he wanted to touch my paw, but I learned better. So must you. The man is your friend. He will feed you and give you water to drink. So don't scratch him. He only wants to pat you and rub you." ...
— Nero, the Circus Lion - His Many Adventures • Richard Barnum

... indeed you haue articulated, Proclaim'd at Market Crosses, read in Churches, To face the Garment of Rebellion With some fine colour, that may please the eye Of fickle Changelings, and poore Discontents, Which gape, and rub the Elbow at the newes Of hurly burly Innouation: And neuer yet did Insurrection want Such water-colours, to impaint his cause: Nor moody Beggars, staruing for a time Of ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... rub his ear; a trick he had when in doubt. Netta, seeing this, put her arms round his neck, ...
— Gladys, the Reaper • Anne Beale

... rag in the oil and began to rub a gun, and Foster went out, feeling satisfied. It was plain that he could rely upon the old fellow, who he thought was unflinchingly loyal to the Featherstones. After all, it was something to have the respect and affection of ...
— Carmen's Messenger • Harold Bindloss

... his eyes and began to rub them, thinking at first that the bell which he heard was rung to call the boys at Miss Lawson's school. But when he looked around him, he soon discovered that he was not in the school dormitory, and then as he became more wide-awake he remembered ...
— The Little Clown • Thomas Cobb

... Dey rub him an' rub him, an' do everything to fotch him to life. But, my Jerry war dead. An' when me'n de ole man come home from de funeral—dey buried him in de white folks' buryin'-groun,' long side o' Miss May's little gal what died—an' put a tombstone ...
— Connor Magan's Luck and Other Stories • M. T. W.

... he saw that we were going to stop for rest and refreshment, Jimmy began to rub the centre of his person and make a rush for the native basket that contained our food, from which he had to be driven; for though generally, quite unlike many of his fellow-countrymen, Jimmy was scrupulously honest, he could not be ...
— Bunyip Land - A Story of Adventure in New Guinea • George Manville Fenn

... did not want her to be saved. They liked to think of the theatre as being beyond the pale. They remembered the time, before they were ordained, and after, when they had hotly desired to see the inside of a theatre and to rub shoulders with wickedness. And they took pleasure in the knowledge that the theatre was always there, and the wickedness thereof, and the lost souls therein. But Jock-at-a-Venture genuinely longed, in that ecstasy of his, for the total abolition ...
— The Matador of the Five Towns and Other Stories • Arnold Bennett

... when I rub it around, Tom," he said, "but it won't hurt your ankle for more than ...
— The Boy Scout Fire Fighters - or Jack Danby's Bravest Deed • Robert Maitland

... didn't seem to mind that, but took off her long white gloves and laid them on the table; then she snatched up one of the boxes, and began to rub a handkerchief that lay ...
— Phemie Frost's Experiences • Ann S. Stephens

... apparently expressive of more irritation than the first, now rose from the cave, the mouth of which was half-hidden by artificial brambles, made so as to be easily put on one side. At this sound, the Englishman stood up in his little box, leaned half over the front, and began to rub his hands with great energy; then, remaining perfectly motionless, he fixed his large, green, glittering eyes on the mouth ...
— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue

... practicable. If you cannot bear cold water, take the least possible chill off the water (cold water, however, is best). If bathing is not practicable, wash the body with cold water, and keep scrupulously clean. The reaction caused by cold water, is most desirable. Rub the body dry with a rough towel. Drink a good draught ...
— Searchlights on Health: Light on Dark Corners • B.G. Jefferis

... arrival to the natives. It rained a good deal, and there was not much to do but to loaf on the beach. Here, one day, I saw an interesting method of fishing by poisoning the water, which is practised in many places. At low tide the natives rub a certain fruit on the stones of the reef, the juice mixes with the water in the pools and poisons the fish, so that after a short while they float senseless on the surface and may ...
— Two Years with the Natives in the Western Pacific • Felix Speiser

... and monk clattered on to the floor together, he sprang through the open door and down the winding stair. Sleepy old brother Athanasius, at the porter's cell, had a fleeting vision of twinkling feet and flying skirts; but before he had time to rub his eyes the recreant had passed the lodge, and was speeding as fast as his sandals could ...
— The White Company • Arthur Conan Doyle

... to do so. Fortunately he had brought some extra underwear in his valise, and, after a good rub-down before the stove, he donned the garments, and then put on a pair of the fisherman's trousers and an old coat, until ...
— Larry Dexter's Great Search - or, The Hunt for the Missing Millionaire • Howard R. Garis

... (Bony vanishes) Where are you hurt, Tatsy? (She moans bitterly) Poor little girl! Her foot is twisted. A sprain perhaps. (Picks her up and carries her to sofa) Never mind! I've got a fairy in a bottle will cure that in a jiffy. Just rub it on, and ho, Tatsy ...
— Semiramis and Other Plays - Semiramis, Carlotta And The Poet • Olive Tilford Dargan

... has enough for both; you must rub us together, as they do light red and Prussian blue, to make a neutral tint. But oh, what a ribbon! oh, mother, what a love of a ribbon! Rose! Rose! look at this ribbon! And oh, those buttons! Fred, I do believe they are for your new coat! ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I, No. 1, Nov. 1857 • Various

... middle-class—meaning by middle-class the upper stratum, the professional men, the lawyers, clergymen, physicians, the merchants who had been enriched by the growth of commerce and manufactures; the country gentlemen whose rents had risen, and who could come to London and rub off their old rusticity. The aristocracy is still in possession of great wealth and political power, but beneath it has grown up an independent society which is already beginning to be the most important social stratum and the chief factor in political and social development. It has sufficient ...
— English Literature and Society in the Eighteenth Century • Leslie Stephen

... the Zhack flitted by in a trance; And the Squidjum hid under a tub As he heard the loud hooves of the Hooken advance With a rub-a-dub-dub-a-dub dub! And the Crankadox cried as he laid down and died, "My fate there is none to bewail!" While the Queen of the Wunks drifted over the tide With a long piece of crape ...
— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various

... pruning some Persian walnuts. Just as the side branch starts I rub that bud off and I can't see that I ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Forty-Second Annual Meeting • Northern Nut Growers Association

... wish left, to rejoin the flock, rub himself against the human animals, his brothers, feel with them, act with them.... Though exhausted by sleeplessness, he started, in spite of his wife, to take the train for Paris with Maxime. They had to wait a long time at the station, and also in the train, for the tracks were blocked, and the ...
— Clerambault - The Story Of An Independent Spirit During The War • Rolland, Romain

... without thought, her fingers teased out the fleece, drawing it down to a fairly uniform thickness: brown, old, natural fingers that worked as in a sleep, the thumb having a long grey nail; and from moment to moment there was a quick, downward rub, between thumb and forefinger, of the thread that hung in front of her apron, the heavy bobbin spun more briskly, and she felt again at the fleece as she drew it down, and she gave a twist to the thread that issued, and the ...
— Twilight in Italy • D.H. Lawrence

... purchased some breakfast and began to look about them. While it was still early, the narrow streets were quite well crowded with people, so much so that it looked to the visitors as if the inhabitants never slept. What they saw almost made them rub their eyes to make sure they were not in Asia instead of South America. There were dozens of almond-eyed Chinese within sight, dozens of black Hindoos in turbans and flowing garments, dozens of Parsees wearing long ...
— Around the World in Ten Days • Chelsea Curtis Fraser

... "Their talk leads nowhere. I went down and attempted to find out what their grievance might be, but they close up like clams whenever I come within earshot. They stare at the ceiling, rub their chins, and laugh when there's nothing to laugh at. This morning, however, I finally convinced McLean that something was radically wrong. So he took one of them who had just decided to quit and pinned him up against the embankment—but ...
— Then I'll Come Back to You • Larry Evans

... was wildly irritating to me. I knew myself infinitely superior to them; I knew the long creature's novel was worthless; I knew that I had fifty books in me immeasurably better than it, and savagely and sullenly I desired to trample upon them, to rub their noses in their feebleness; but oh, it was I who was feeble! and full of visions of a wider world I raged up and down the cold walls of impassable mental limitations. Above me there was a barred window, and, but ...
— Confessions of a Young Man • George Moore

... had made, and asked had they brought the powder or other drug to put Carrizales to sleep. At the same time, he spoke to them respecting the master-key. They told him that on the following night they would bring the powder, or else an ointment of such virtue that one had only to rub the patient's wrists and temples with it to throw him into such a profound sleep, that he would not wake for two days, unless the anointed parts were well washed with vinegar. As to the key, he had only ...
— The Exemplary Novels of Cervantes • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... opportunity to see her, to look upon her face, and to hear her voice. For her I believe I would sacrifice every one who is dear to me. One day she shall be mine—mine at whatever cost—if she will be. If she will be. Ah, there is the rub! If she will be. I dare not hope ...
— Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall • Charles Major

... as a feat of this kind. It is obvious to what wide divergence these differing tendencies, actively followed, must lead. As one passes and repasses from Hellenism to Hebraism, from Plato to St. Paul, one feels inclined to rub one's eyes and ask oneself whether man is indeed a gentle and simple being, showing the traces of a noble and divine nature; or an unhappy chained captive, laboring with groanings that cannot be uttered to free himself from ...
— Selections from the Prose Works of Matthew Arnold • Matthew Arnold

... time (while a soldier) he frequently complained of a pain at the pit of his stomach, accompanied with sickness, which totally prevented his stooping, and in consequence he could never arrive at the power of bending his body to rub the heels of his horse. During the latter part of his life he became nearly ...
— The Opium Habit • Horace B. Day

... rub, Prince Ravorelli. It has happened in your rooms, and I want to say to you that if evil befalls my friend, I shall hold you to account for it," said Quentin, turning on ...
— Castle Craneycrow • George Barr McCutcheon

... an ounce of oil of vitriol, half an ounce of oil of almonds, a quarter of an ounce of oil of turpentine, one ounce of oil of juniper berries, half a pint of spirit of wine, and half a pound of lump sugar. Beat or rub the above in a mortar. When well rubbed together, have ready prepared half a gallon of lime water, one gallon of rose water; mix the whole in either a pail, or cask, with a stick, till every particle shall be dissolved; then add to the foregoing, ...
— A Treatise on Adulterations of Food, and Culinary Poisons • Fredrick Accum

... for sickness caused by ghosts is this. You take a stout stick, cleave it down the middle so that the two ends remain entire, and give it to two men to hold. Then the sick man pokes his head through the cleft; after that you rub him with the stick from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. In this way you obviously scrape off the bloodsucking ghosts who are clinging like flies or mosquitoes to his person, and having thus transferred them to the cleft stick you ...
— The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume I (of 3) • Sir James George Frazer

... all of this stuff straightened out in my mind is to get more information. And it doesn't look as though anyone is going to give it to me on a platter, either. The Institute men seem to be awfully chary about giving information away, even to me. George even had to chase away old rub-and-pound (That feels good!) before he would talk about the Nipe. Can't blame 'em for that, of course. There'd be hell to pay for everyone around if the general public ever found out that the Nipe has been kept as a pet ...
— Anything You Can Do ... • Gordon Randall Garrett

... replied Charley. "A hundred feet oughtn't to cost much of anything. The rub's going to be to get the oars. You say they want five dollars for the cheapest pair at the hardware store, and the sporting goods store ...
— The Young Wireless Operator—As a Fire Patrol - The Story of a Young Wireless Amateur Who Made Good as a Fire Patrol • Lewis E. Theiss

... actually does the same. But by means of its superior capital, and consequently its superior credit and resources, it can, in some of its operations, either undersell the other banks, or command a preference in the market;—aye, there's the rub. The banks in some of the large cities have persuaded themselves that if this "formidable" rival was out of the way, they would be able to buy and sell more bills, and upon better terms than at present. But if this consideration should make ...
— The American Quarterly Review, No. 17, March 1831 • Various

... fountains sealed, for a reticent hundred years—or possibly less, under pressure—with the seals of academic reserve, and historic perspective, and traditional modesty. Most of the women who had a hand in the making of Wellesley's first forty years are still alive. There's the rub. It would not hamper the journalist. But the historian has his conventions. One hundred years from now, what names, living to-day, will be written in Wellesley's golden book? Already they are written in many prophetic hearts. However, ...
— The Story of Wellesley • Florence Converse

... like a ship that is about to slip off its ways," resumed Fid. "If she makes a fair start, and there is neither jam nor dry-rub, smack see goes into the water, like a sail let run in a calm; but, if she once brings up, a good deal of labour is to be gone through to set her in motion again. Now, in order to wedge up my ideas, and to ...
— The Red Rover • James Fenimore Cooper

... is perhaps still more painful. Many have the feeling in their waking hours that the trouble they are aching with is, after all, only a dream,—if they will rub their eyes briskly enough and shake themselves, they will awake out of it, and find all their supposed grief is unreal. This attempt to cajole ourselves out of an ugly fact always reminds us of those unhappy flies who have been indulging in the ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... depended most upon his ears. The forest was so silent that he could hear any noise at a great distance, but there was none. Trusting to his ears to warn him, he would remain there a long time for a thorough rest. He even dared to take off his snowshoes that he might rub his sore ankles, but he wrapped his heavy blanket about his body, lest he take deep cold in cooling off in such a temperature after so ...
— The Scouts of the Valley • Joseph A. Altsheler

... scant sympathy: "What did Doubleday discharge him for?" he demanded. "What did the cattlemen blacklist him for? He's the best foreman this ranch ever had—or ever will have," added Bradley, summoning his scant courage to rub it in. "He fired him because he took up a little piece of land agin the Falling Wall and got together a few cows of his own. That's a crime, ain't it? Like ——. These cattlemen will learn a thing or two when ...
— Laramie Holds the Range • Frank H. Spearman

... case of a neglected plantation the trees are sure to be covered with moss and rough dead bark, and it is of great importance to remove this at once, and rub the trees ...
— Gold, Sport, And Coffee Planting In Mysore • Robert H. Elliot

... in bed already, your holiness?" he asked. "Here I have come to rub you with spirit and vinegar. A thorough rubbing does a great deal of good. Lord Jesus Christ! . . . That's the way . . . that's the way. . . . I've just been in our monastery. . . . I don't like it. I'm going away from here to-morrow, your ...
— The Bishop and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... bands and musical comedies to the ticket speculators' tune of five dollars a seat, My Khaki-Boy, covered with the golden hoar of three hundred Metropolitan nights rose to the slightly off key grand finale of its eighty-first matine, curtain slithering down to the rub-a-dud-dub of a score of pink satin drummer boys with slim ankles and curls; a Military Sextette of the most blooded of Broadway ponies; a back ground of purple eye-lidded privates enlisted from the ranks of Forty-Second Street; a three hundred and fifty dollar a week sartorial sergeant in ...
— Defenders of Democracy • Militia of Mercy

... earth in which I delved, scarce distinguishable from it. I had on my head an old felt hat of no shape at all; I had a cotton shirt open to the navel, and a pair of blue cotton drawers which failed me at the knees. I was bleached and tanned again, stained and polished by the constant rub of weather and hard work—a perfect contrast to my last appearance before him. Then it had been my heart that was rent, not my garments; then my spirit was fretted and seamed, not my skin. Then I had had a fine cloth coat and lace ruffles; but my soul was soiled ...
— The Fool Errant • Maurice Hewlett

... trailing along after the boat, in hopes of meeting up with a hungry fish that might be taken aboard, and not only afford a meal for the crowd, but give him a good chance to crow over his rival fisherman once more, "rub it in," ...
— The, Boy Scouts on Sturgeon Island - or Marooned Among the Game-fish Poachers • Herbert Carter

... with your dreams, and omens, and all your weird nonsense. It's time for a little more common-sense. Rub her wrists gently but strongly; and if she shows ...
— His Sombre Rivals • E. P. Roe

... skin rough. With the daily bath for cleanliness it is possible that warm water and soap need not be used more frequently than once or twice a week and that a laving of the whole surface with cold water followed by a vigorous rub down with a coarse towel may serve the double purpose of insuring absolute cleanliness, and at the same time serving ...
— The Biology, Physiology and Sociology of Reproduction - Also Sexual Hygiene with Special Reference to the Male • Winfield S. Hall

... Aladdin and his wonderful lamp to you," he said, as they stood watching the workmen putting in the glass to the greenhouses. "All you have to do is rub it, and ...
— Money Magic - A Novel • Hamlin Garland

... trying to get rid of some warts. Pewt says if you hook a piece of pork after dark, rub it on the warts and say arum erum irum orum urum and nurum 3 times turn round twice and throw the pork thru a window, then the warts will all be gone the next day. me and Beany is ...
— The Real Diary of a Real Boy • Henry A. Shute

... who appeared to command the others, was standing with his hand upon the arched neck of his steed, which appeared as fresh and vigorous as ever, although covered with foam and perspiration. "Spare not to rub down, my men," said he, "for we have tried the mettle of our horses, and have now but one half-hour's breathing-time. We must be on, for the work of the Lord must ...
— The Children of the New Forest • Captain Marryat

... cornered somewhere where he can't escape, whip out your note-book and make him hold up his arms. Butter him up a bit, and he'll give in; he's not been famous long enough not to feel inclined to purr if you rub him the right way. ...
— In the Mist of the Mountains • Ethel Turner



Words linked to "Rub" :   obstacle, meet, sponge down, obstruction, physical contact, sponge off, fray, rosin, strain, contact, run, adjoin, scour, pass over, grate, scrape, worry, touch, guide, scuff, rub-a-dub, pass, pumice, puree, irritate, smudge, blur, smear, rub up, brush, gauge, abrade, draw, wipe, smutch



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