Scrub
Scrub (skrub) , transitive verb
[Old English scrobben, probably of Dutch or Scand. origin; compare Danish skrubbe, Swedish skrubba, Dutch schrobben, LG. schrubben.]
To rub hard; to wash with rubbing; usually, to rub with a wet brush, or with something coarse or rough, for the purpose of cleaning or brightening; as, to scrub a floor, a doorplate.
Scrub (skrub) , intransitive verb
To rub anything hard, especially with a wet brush; to scour; hence, to be diligent and penurious; as, to scrub hard for a living.
Scrub (skrub) , noun
1.
One who labors hard and lives meanly; a mean fellow.
A sorry scrub.
We should go there in as proper a manner as possible; nor altogether like the scrubs about us.
2.
Something small and mean.
3.
A worn-out brush. — Ainsworth
4.
A thicket or jungle, often specified by the name of the prevailing plant; as, oak scrub, palmetto scrub, etc.
5.
(Stock Breeding) One of the common live stock of a region of no particular breed or not of pure breed, esp. when inferior in size, etc. [United States]
6.
Vegetation of inferior quality, though sometimes thick and impenetrable, growing in poor soil or in sand; also, brush; -- called also scrub brush. See Brush, above. [Australia & South Africa]
7.
(Forestry) A low, straggling tree of inferior quality.
Collocations (3)
Scrub bird (Zoology) , an Australian passerine bird of the family Atrichornithidae, as Atrichia clamosa; -- called also brush bird.
Scrub oak (Botany) , the popular name of several dwarfish species of oak. The scrub oak of New England and the Middle States is Quercus ilicifolia, a scraggy shrub; that of the Southern States is a small tree (Quercus Catesbaei); that of the Rocky Mountain region is Quercus undulata, var. Gambelii.
Scrub robin (Zoology) , an Australian singing bird of the genus Drymodes.
Scrub (skrub) , adjective
Mean; dirty; contemptible; scrubby.
How solitary, how scrub, does this town look!
No little scrub joint shall come on my board.
Collocations (2)
Scrub game , a game, as of ball, by unpracticed players.
Scrub race , a race between scrubs, or between untrained animals or contestants.