[syn: cancel, call off, scratch, scrub]
ADJECTIVE (1)
1. (of domestic animals) not selectively bred;
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Scrub \Scrub\ (skr[u^]b), a.
Mean; dirty; contemptible; scrubby.
[1913 Webster]
How solitary, how scrub, does this town look!
--Walpole.
[1913 Webster]
No little scrub joint shall come on my board. --Swift.
[1913 Webster]
Scrub game, a game, as of ball, by unpracticed players.
Scrub race, a race between scrubs, or between untrained
animals or contestants.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Scrub \Scrub\ (skr[u^]b), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Scrubbed
(skr[u^]bd); p. pr. & vb. n. Scrubbing.] [OE. scrobben,
probably of Dutch or Scand. origin; cf. Dan. skrubbe, Sw.
skrubba, D. 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.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Scrub \Scrub\ (skr[u^]b), v. i.
To rub anything hard, especially with a wet brush; to scour;
hence, to be diligent and penurious; as, to scrub hard for a
living.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Scrub \Scrub\ (skr[u^]b), n.
1. One who labors hard and lives meanly; a mean fellow. "A
sorry scrub." --Bunyan.
[1913 Webster]
We should go there in as proper a manner as
possible; nor altogether like the scrubs about us.
--Goldsmith.
[1913 Webster]
2. Something small and mean.
[1913 Webster]
3. A worn-out brush. --Ainsworth.
[1913 Webster]
4. A thicket or jungle, often specified by the name of the
prevailing plant; as, oak scrub, palmetto scrub, etc.
[1913 Webster]
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. [U.S.]
[1913 Webster]
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]
[Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC]
7. (Forestry) A low, straggling tree of inferior quality.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
Scrub bird (Zool.), an Australian passerine bird of the
family Atrichornithidae, as Atrichia clamosa; --
called also brush bird.
Scrub oak (Bot.), 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 (Zool.), an Australian singing bird of the
genus Drymodes.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
scrub
adj 1: (of domestic animals) not selectively bred
n 1: dense vegetation consisting of stunted trees or bushes
[syn: scrub, chaparral, bush]
2: the act of cleaning a surface by rubbing it with a brush and
soap and water [syn: scrub, scrubbing, scouring]
v 1: clean with hard rubbing; "She scrubbed his back" [syn:
scrub, scour]
2: wash thoroughly; "surgeons must scrub prior to an operation"
[syn: scrub, scrub up]
3: postpone indefinitely or annul something that was scheduled;
"Call off the engagement"; "cancel the dinner party"; "we had
to scrub our vacation plans"; "scratch that meeting--the
chair is ill" [syn: cancel, call off, scratch, scrub]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
234 Moby Thesaurus words for "scrub":
a nobody, a nothing, abandon, ablate, ablation, ablution, abort,
abrade, abrase, abrasion, abrasive, afforestation, arboretum,
attrition, baptize, bark, bath, bathe, belay, boondocks, bramble,
brier, brier bush, brush, brushwood, buff, buffing, burnishing,
bush, bushveld, call off, cancel, cease, chafe, chafing, chase,
cipher, cleaning out, cleanse, climax forest, cloud forest,
common man, cut it out, dendrology, desist, detrition, discontinue,
do away with, douche, douching, dressing, drop, drop it, dummy,
elution, elutriation, end, enema, erase, erasure, erode, erosion,
figurehead, file, filing, flush, flush out, flushing, flushing out,
forest, forest land, forest preserve, forestry, fray, frazzle,
fret, fretting, fringing forest, gall, gallery forest, galling,
gargle, give over, give up, gnaw, gnaw away, grate, graze, grazing,
greenwood, grind, grinding, halt, hanger, have done with, hold,
holystone, index forest, insignificancy, irrigate, irrigation,
jackstraw, jungle, jungles, knock it off, lather, lathering,
launder, lavabo, lavage, lavation, lave, laving, lay off,
leave off, lightweight, limation, little fellow, little guy,
man of straw, mediocrity, mop, mop up, mopping, mopping up,
national forest, nebbish, nobody one knows, nonentity, obscurity,
palmetto barrens, park, park forest, pine barrens, pip-squeak,
polish, polishing, poor relation, primeval forest,
protection forest, punk, quit, rain forest, rasp, rasping, raze,
reforestation, refrain, relinquish, renounce, rinse, rinse out,
rinsing, ritually immerse, rub, rub away, rub off, rub out,
rubbing away, runt, sandblasting, sanding, scour, scouring, scrape,
scraping, scratch, scratching, scrub up, scrubbing, scrubbing up,
scrubland, scrubwood, scuff, secondary, selection forest, shampoo,
shining, shower, shrimp, shrub, shrubbery, shrubland, shrubwood,
silviculture, skin, sluice, sluice out, small fry, small potato,
small potatoes, smoothing, soap, soaping, sponge, sponging,
sprout forest, squirt, squit, stand of timber, state forest, stay,
stop, subaltern, subordinate, swab, swabbing, syringe, terminate,
timber, timberland, toivel, tree veld, tub, underling,
understrapper, virgin forest, wash, wash out, wash up, washing,
washing up, washout, washup, wear, wear away, wearing away,
whiffet, whippersnapper, wildwood, wiping up, wood, woodland,
woods