| 释义 |
▪ I. scrub, n.1|skrʌb|
Also 6 schrub.
[var. of shrub: see scr- 1.]
I.
1. A low stunted tree. Cf. shrub.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xxv. (Tollem. MS.), In euery scrub [orig. in omni frutice], where þe reynebowe schineþ strayte þeron, þe same swetnesse of smel is all þe while, þat þe bowe schineþ þere. 1597Regul. Manor of Scawby, Lincs. (MS.), That none shall take or carrye away any common ffurrs, being common rootes or scrubbes. 1868Huntley Gloss. Cotswold Dial., Scrub, shrub.
2. collect.
a. Stunted trees or shrubs, brushwood; also, a tract of country overgrown with ‘scrub’. In Austral. and N.Z. usage, any tract of heavily wooded country, whether bearing small or large bushes or trees.
1805P. G. King in Hist. Records Australia (1915) 1st Ser. V. 586 A Scrub—consists of Shrubs of low growth, Soil of a bad quality with small Iron gravelly Stones, in general Rocky Scrub and Brush may..be called the Underwood of the Forest, but it is not infrequent on the Sea Coast for Scrubs to be void of trees. 1809A. Henry Trav. 281 At four o'clock in the afternoon, we reached a little scrub, or bushy tract, on which we encamped. 1833C. Sturt S. Australia I. i. 21 We encamped about noon in some scrub. 1841N.Z. Jrnl. II. xlviii. 285 Every part is covered with vegetation, fern, scrub, copse and forest. 1860J. McD. Stuart Jrnl. 9 Apr. (1864) 153 At four miles arrived on the top, through a very thick scrub of mulga. 1873Gentl. Mag. Jan. 60 There are few trees, but plenty of scrub and bushes. 1885H. Finch-Hatton Advance Australia! 152 Upon one occasion a traveller was riding quickly round the corner of a scrub, when he came suddenly on to a camp of wild Blacks. 1911E. M. Clowes On Wallaby i. 5 These [prisoners] were packed off next day in boats, and let loose in the dense scrub where St. Kilda and Prahan now stand. 1947K. Tennant Lost Haven vii. 105 She had been leading the children in botany expeditions through the scrub. 1966‘J. Hackston’ Father clears Out 16 Chester tried to cannon off the road and pocket us in the scrub. 1977Weekly Times (Melbourne) 19 Jan. 34/1 In silence the two men rode towards the river but, turning left into the scrub before the bridge, they skirted the town.
b. transf. and fig.
1860C. Kingsley Miscell. I. 295 The Elizabethan poets dwindled down into a barren scrub of Vaughans and Cowleys, etc. 1885Rider Haggard K. Solomon's Mines vii, He felt his chin, on which the accumulated scrub of a ten day's beard was flourishing.
c. the Scrubs: ellipt. for Wormwood Scrubs Prison in Greater London. Also erron. Scrubbs.
The element Scrubs in the place-name is app. identical with scrub n.1 (see Conc. Oxf. Dict. Eng. Place-Names (1936) 510/1).
1923in J. Manchon Le Slang. 1930G. Baker Soul of Skunk ii. ii. 161 At the end of my first temporal month, I gibed at the Scrubbs... The broadest of my prison grins must have been that which I bestowed upon the Scrubbs' librarian. 1941G. Greene When Greek meets Greek in 19 Stories (1947) 171 Before his first stay at the Scrubs he had held a number of positions. 1966A. Prior Operators vi. 64 He had..taken his medicine, which had turned out to be three years in the Scrubs. 1976M. Maguire Scratchproof iv. 58 ‘Catherine put him in the Scrubbs for twelve months,’ Gibson continued. ‘It was in all the papers, you must have read about it.’
3. spec. mallee scrub (Eucalyptus oleosa) and horizontal scrub (Anodopetalum biglandulosum), native trees of Australasia, common in thickets and undergrowth. tea-scrub: see tea-tree.
1857Howitt Tallangetta xii. II. 2 This Mallee scrub..consists of a dense wood of a dwarf species of gum-tree. 1909G. Smith Nat. Tasmania 117 The most formidable constituent of this underscrub is the..Horizontal Scrub.
II.
4. a. A breed of cattle distinguished by their small size. Now in extended sense (N. Amer.): an animal of inferior breed or pedigree; a beast of poor physique or performance. †b. A dwarf; a person of mean presence.
a.1555Act 2–3 Phil. & Mary c. 3 §1 Persons..have layde theyr Landes..to feeding of Sheepe, Oxen, Runtes, Schrubbes, Steeres & Heckfers, and suche other lyke Cattell. 1581Lambarde Eiren. iv. iv. 449 Oxen, rontes, steeres, scrubs, heifares, or kine. 1812Columbia Centinel 31 Oct. 2/3 May the usefulness of our Institution be acknowledged;—its speed drive scrubs from the course. 1858C. L. Flint Milch Cows 28 We meet with good milkers of all forms, from the round close-built Devon to the coarsest-boned scrub. 1884Harper's Mag. July 297/2 The latter receives most of the ‘through Texans’, the old cows, and the ‘scrubs’ and ‘culls’ from the better lots. 1888Harper's Mag. Jan. 325/1 The colonel's horse—an old ‘scrub’ he had borrowed—‘bucked’. 1901Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 26 Oct. 8/2 Mr. Wilson, manager of the Toronto Poultry farm, says he can not get enough [chickens] of superior quality, and many others say the same. No one wants ‘scrubs’, the days of which are numbered. 1934J. M. Cain Postman always rings Twice xiv. 157 All the really fine pumas come from Nicaragua. These California..things are just scrubs compared to them. 1936M. Mitchell Gone with Wind xxx. 509 They knew thoroughbred horses from scrubs. 1972Fredrickson & East Silence of North vii. 52 We had a dog team of sorts, two scrubs that weren't worth much but could pull a load of traps and other gear on a homemade toboggan.
b.1611Cotgr., Vn manche d'estrille, a dwarfe, elfe, dandiprat, low scrub.
5. transf.
a. A mean insignificant fellow, a person of little account or poor appearance.
1589Warner Alb. Eng. vi. xxxi. 137 Must I, thought I, giue aime to such a Skrub and such a Saint, That Skowndrell, and this Counterfeit. 1657Trapp Comm. Ps. lxii. 4 Neither is there ever a better of these glavering companions, dissembling scrubs. 1749Fielding Tom Jones viii. iv, He is an arrant scrub, I assure you. 1876T. Hardy Ethelberta xlvii. II. 256 Any poor scrubs in our place must be fools not to think the match a very rare and astonishing honour, as far as the position goes.
b. slang. A disreputable woman; a prostitute, tart.
1900Dialect Notes II. 58 Scrub,..a disreputable woman who frequents the streets. 1964New Statesman 10 Apr. 555/2 A ‘scrub’ is a Rocker girl; that is, someone not fond of washing, according to the Mods, and a bit of a tart.
c. U.S. Sport. (a) A player belonging to a second or weaker team (freq. in pl.); a team composed of such players. Also fig. Cf. scrub a. 4.
1892College Index (Agric. & Mech. Coll. Alabama) Nov. 23 Arranged similarly, but with darker stockings, stand the inimitable ‘scrubs’, and although their name is rather depreciatory, they themselves are not to be scoffed at. 1903N.Y. Even. Post 28 Oct. 9/5 The halfback tries his mettle against the scrubs. 1920W. Camp Football without Coach 62 Do not let the absence of a scrub disturb you in the least. Many a team is better off without a second eleven. 1956B. Holiday Lady sings Blues (1973) xxi. 173, I wouldn't have known the first team from the scrubs, but Ehrlich told me the prosecutor and the judge were the best they had. 1961J. S. Salak Dict. Amer. Sports 385 Scrub, a player of the second, or weaker, team; one not good enough to be on the first team.
(b) (See quot. 1910.)
1892Dialect Notes I. 214 ‘Scrub’ in New England is that form of base ball played when there are too few players to have opposing sides. 1896W. A. White Real Issue 66 Just before school was called Piggy Pennington was playing ‘scrub’. 1910Dialect Notes III. 447 Scrub, a game of baseball played by a half dozen or more persons (when there are not enough to ‘choose up’ for two nines), in which the players move up as a batter is retired. 1917C. Mathewson Second Base Sloan 126 At the end of a week or so they were playing ‘scrub’ every noon hour.
III. attrib. and Comb.
6. attrib. and Comb.: (sense 2), as scrub bull, scrub bush, scrub-cattle, scrub fire, scrub horse, scrub jungle, scrub-land; scrub-covered adj.; (sense 1), as scrub-tree; scrub-cutter Austral. and N.Z., (a) a machine for cutting scrub; (b) one who cuts scrub; hence scrub-cutting vbl. n.; scrub-dashing vbl. n. Austral. (see quot. 1941); scrub-itch, a skin-disease peculiar to the jungles of New Guinea; scrub-rider Austral., one who rides in search of cattle that have escaped into the scrub; scrub tick, either of two small, brown, hard-bodied ticks found in Australia, Hæmaphysalis bispinosa or Ixodes holocyclus, the bush tick; scrub typhus, an acute rickettsial fever transmitted to man by mites normally parasitic upon small rodents; cf. mite(-borne) typhus s.v. mite1 3.
1908Mrs. A. Gunn We of Never-Never xviii. 238 Tales of *scrub-bulls, maddened cow-mothers. 1946A. Marshall in Murdoch & Drake-Brockman Austral. Short Stories (1951) 317 He was an old scrub bull,..who roamed the timbered hills beyond the Murray. 1954[see centre n. 11 h]. 1977Listener (N.Z.) 15 Jan. 34/3 Jeremy Delacy, the ‘scrub bull’, eccentric conservationist station-owner who has parted company with the local ‘establishment’.
1897D. McK. Wright Old Station Days 11 Cobwebs..jewelled the *scrub-bushes o'er. 1959Tararua (N.Z.) XIII. 45 One curious term is scrub bush. So far as I can make out it is applicable to the individual plants which go to make up tall scrub. At any rate a tall plant of teatree may be called a scrub bush.
1870A. L. Gordon Bush Ballads 14 'Twas merry 'mid the blackwoods, when we spied the station roofs, To wheel the wild *scrub cattle at the yard.
1900W. S. Churchill in Morning Post 19 Mar. 5/7 The proper left of this position rests on the rocky *scrub-covered hill of Hlangwani. 1980S. Wilson Dealer's War i. ii. 26 Grey scrub-covered hills.
1886R. Stout Notes Progress N.Z. 28 The following..are manufactured in the colony—viz., ploughs, chaff-cutters..disc-harrows..*scrub-cutters. a1930H. Stone in Austral. Short Stories (1951) 115 But them scrub-cutters... They do need constant watchin. 1937J. West Sheep Kings ix. 87 He purchased a new block of bush land, and employed another gang of men to break it in—timber-men and scrub-cutters and post-splitters. 1965M. Shadbolt Among Cinders xxii. 210 Probably the place had been built by scrub-cutters.
1911‘Kiwi’ On Swag iii. 7 We were on a job of *scrub cutting. 1968Wanganui (N.Z.) Chron. 15 Nov. 10/5 (Advt.), Scrub-cutting contract for 120 acres. 1977C. McCullough Thorn Birds vi. 117 The grass had lasted just long enough eked out by scrub-cutting from the more juicy trees.
1941Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 64 *Scrub-dashing, riding through bush or scrub, esp. after strayed cattle or brumbies. 1946F. D. Davison Dusty xv. 166 Fred had offered Tom work; odd jobs around the homestead..while Fred did the scrub-dashing.
1944Living off Land vii. 148 Slower-burning *scrub fires..call for strategy. 1965S. T. Ollivier Petticoat Farm i. 1 Harry stood at the roadside and watched the white pumice dust..hanging in the air like smoke from a scrub fire on a fine day.
1823J. F. Cooper Pioneers xvii, The rider of *scrub-horses. 1893D. Ferguson Bush Life in Australia & N.Z. 301 The scrub confused and handicapped [the thoroughbred] whilst Selina was a scrub horse.
1909K. Mackay Across Papua 125 We were now in the region of leeches and *scrub-itch.
1910Blackw. Mag. Jan. 113/1, I saw my first tiger in a *scrub-jungle two miles from the Nepal frontier. 1934‘G. Orwell’ Burmese Days iv. 69 It was scrub jungle at first, with dense stunted bushes. 1953D. A. Bannerman Birds Brit. Isles I. 256 The buntings spread over the plains of India, chiefly affecting cultivation and scrub-jungle.
1779W. McKendry Jrnl. 4 Oct. in Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc. (1886) 2nd Ser. III. 472 Came over *skrub land this day. 1852Mundy Antipodes (1857) 15 Innumerable tracks for equestrians across the stunted scrub-land. 1955H. Klein Winged Courier xiv. 90 All around her lay scrubland, marsh and swamp. 1955J. Thomas No Banners xxiii. 230 The road and the lane make a kind of elongated ‘V’, with the two arms separated by this scrub⁓land. 1976K. Royce Bustillo iv. 47 Across the scrubland, the market was preparing its stalls. 1977‘J. le Carré’ Hon. Schoolboy xvii. 404 The perfect tarmac road ran..over the flat scrubland.
1881A. C. Grant Bush-Life in Queensland (1882) xv. 150 A favourite plan amongst the bold *scrub-riders.
1891Queenslander 3 Jan. 36/3 The *scrub tick is a small animal with eight legs when mature, flat, brown in colour. 1936Discovery Oct. 306/2 If the camp is in the scrub..scrub ticks have to be faced. 1965Austral. Encycl. VIII. 499/1 In the genus Haemaphysalis are..two introduced species: a scrub tick..originally from India, and a dog tick.
1749Lady Luxborough Lett. to Shenstone (1775) 163, I ordered a crooked row of *scrub trees to be fallen. 1888W. D. Lighthall Yng. Seigneur 153 A hamlet of thirty or forty cabins crowded together among some scrub trees in the midst of a stony moor.
1929W. Fletcher et al. in Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. & Hygiene XXIII. 61 The K. form has a patchy distribution, and its virus, like the virus of the tsutsugamushi disease, has its home in circumscribed areas of untilled open country, particularly in land which after being cleared of jungle has been allowed to grow up in weeds and scrub... Because cases of the K. form have their origin in such places, we propose that this kind of tropical typhus should be called *scrub-typhus. Ibid., The epidemiology of this rural, or scrub-typhus, is very similar to that of the sporadic typhus-like disease of India which Megaw attributes to the bites of ticks. 1961R. D. Baker Essent. Path. ix. 241 During World War II tsutsugamushi disease, scrub typhus, was prevalent among our troops in the Far East, and many fatalities occurred. 1978Jrnl. R. Soc. Med. LXXI. 507 Scrub typhus is a febrile illness, endemic in much of the roughly triangular area bounded by Japan, Pakistan and Australia.
b. In names of animals and birds; as scrub-bird, a bird of the Australian family Atrichiiadæ; see also noisy scrub bird s.v. noisy a. 1 b; scrub-fowl, -hen, a grey and brown mound-building bird, Megapodius freycinet, found in coastal areas of northern Australia; scrub jay U.S., a blue jay with no white markings, Aphelocoma cœrulescens, found only in parts of Florida; scrub-robin, any bird of the genus Drymodes, Gould; scrub-tit, -wren, small birds of the order Sericornis, Gould (Morris, Austral Eng.); scrub-turkey, a large mound-building bird, Alectura lathami, found in Australian forests and having a red head and brown body; scrub wallaby, one of several wallabies belonging to the genus Macropus and living in woodland; scrub wren, a small Australian bird belonging to the genus Sericornis.
1869J. Gould Birds of Australia Suppl. Pl. 26 Atrichia rufescens. Rufescent *Scrub-bird.
1908*Scrub fowl [see dead-alive a.]. 1943C. Barrett Austral. Animal Bk. xvii. 151 The scrub-fowl burrows into the mass to deposit each egg.
1864J. Rogers New Rush II. 33 The monster *Scrub-hen, waddling past, Affrights.
1938M. K. Rawlings Yearling xxiv. 302 *Scrub jays flew across the road. Their solid blue feathered coats..were prettier than the bluebirds'. 1947R. T. Peterson Field Guide to Birds (ed. 2) 159 Florida, or Scrub, Jay... Look for this crestless Jay only in the stretches of ‘scrub’ in Florida. 1976Southern Evening Echo (Southampton) 15 Nov. (Advt. Suppl.) 4/2 Scrub jays..feed their brothers and sisters.
1848J. Gould Birds of Australia III. Pl. 10 Drymodes Brunneopygia, Gould, *Scrub Robin.
1872C. H. Eden Queensland 124 The *scrub turkey (Talegalla Lathami)..much resembles the English hen turkey, though but little larger than a fowl. 1885Scrub-turkey [see chucky-chucky]. 1940F. D. Davison Woman at Mill 86 The scrub turkey had her home, her nesting mounds of leaf and forest debris. 1967Courier Mail (Brisbane) 26 June 8 Normal mounding activity by feverishly active scrub turkeys in South-Eastern Queensland begins late in June, ending the following March.
1896,1926*Scrub wallaby [see brush-wallaby s.v. brush n.1 4]. 1947K. Tennant Lost Haven xii. 199 The marks of a scrub wallaby fossicking the high-tide drift. 1970W. D. L. Ride Guide Native Mammals Austral. 46 Scrub wallaby..inhabiting woodland, forest edges, and coastal scrub.
1901A. J. Campbell Nests & Eggs Austral. Birds I. 249 This smart *Scrub Wren possesses chiefly a western distribution. 1943C. Barrett Austral. Animal Bk. xxxii. 278 The Australian scrub-wrens..are fussy, plain-coloured little birds, which spend most of their time on or near the ground, keeping to the undergrowth. 1965Austral. Encycl. VIII. 48/2 Most of the scrub-wrens build domed nests of soft bark and fibre in thick vegetation.
c. In names of Australasian and American trees and plants; as scrub oak, (a) one of several North American dwarf oaks; (b) Casuarina cunninghamii; scrub palmetto, a small, slow-growing palm of the genus Sabal; scrub pine, any of several Australasian and American trees, spec. one of several North American dwarf pines, esp. Pinus virginiana, or its wood; scrub vine (see quots.). Also scrubwood (see quots.).
1766J. Bartram Jrnl. 13 Jan. in Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. (1944) XXXIII. 42/1 We came to Round-Lake,..almost surrounded with palmetto, pine, and *scrub-oak. 1805Pike Sources Mississ. (1810) 40 Found some scrub oak. 1884E. P. Roe in Harper's Mag. Feb. 457/1 An envious scrub-oak tore it off. 1918W. Cather My Antonia ii. xiv. 272 The dogwoods and scrub-oaks began to turn up the silvery underside of their leaves. 1947V. H. Cahalane Mammals N. Amer. 365 One pair of these pockets can carry as many as twenty-seven scrub-oak acorns. 1964R. Murphy Pond i. 9 The second-growth pine woods, had gone back to brush, green-brier, scrub oak.
1938M. K. Rawlings Yearling iv. 40 Pushing through the low..*scrub palmettos..was less laborious. 1968Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 23 Nov. (1970) 740 The landscape was low and flat, clotted with scrub palmettos.
1791P. Fidler Jrnl. 30 Oct. in Publ. Champlain Soc. (1934) XXI. 517 A high point of Rocks & *scrub pine. 1818[see New Jersey]. 1832[see grey pine s.v. grey, gray a. 8]. 1872Coues N. Amer. Birds 103 In sparse low woodland, cedar thickets and old fields grown up to scrub-pines. 1884Sargent Forests N. Amer. 199 Pinus clausus Vasey... Sand Pine. Scrub Pine. Spruce Pine. 1898Morris Austral Eng. s.v. Pine, Scrub Pine, Frenela endlicheri. 1949Sat. Even. Post 9 Apr. 162/3 In front of the fireplace was a coarse-haired bearskin, scarred with burns from the snapping embers of scrub pine and cotton wood. 1976M. & G. Gordon Ordeal (1977) xi. 71 They walked slowly through a forest of scrub pine.
1866Intell. Observ. No. 52. 242 The *scrub⁓vine, a species of cassytha. 1898Morris Austral Eng. s.v. Bauera, A shrub, Bauera rubioides..the Scrub Vine, or Native Rose.
1874Treas. Bot. Suppl. s.v. Commidendron, C. rugosum is called the *Scrub Wood and Gum Shrub. 1875Melliss St. Helena 284 Aster glutinosus ... The indigenous plant called ‘Scrubwood’ is a native of the low, outer zone of the Island.
▪ II. scrub, n.2|skrʌb|
Also scrubb.
[f. scrub v.]
1. a. The action or an act of scrubbing. Also spec. with up: see scrub v.1 3 d; freq. attrib.
1621J. Taylor (Water-P.) Praise Beggery D 1 b, Then (after a scrub or a shrug) you must conceiue he meetes with a Lawyer, and fitting his phrase to his language, hee assaults him thus, and ioynes issue. 1900Daily News 14 Aug. 5/1 Afterwards the Carlton goes over to the Junior Carlton, the senior club requiring a scrub up. a1902S. Butler Way of All Flesh (1903) lxxii. 331 Ellen had given it another scrub from top to bottom. 1937Archit. Rev. LXXXI. 52 (caption) A detail in one of the surgeon's ‘scrub-up’ lobbies, looking through an observatory window into an operating theatre. 1953K. Tennant Joyful Condemned xxxix. 383 Rene eyed May's house possessively. ‘First thing..this gets a good scrub.’ 1964G. L. Cohen What's Wrong with Hospitals? vii. 125 The surgeon..spared me five minutes between a thyroidectomy and his next scrub-up. 1973Daily Tel. 27 July 3/5 The theatre suite, consisting of the operating room, the anaesthetic room, the scrub-up room and the doctors' rest room.
b. Movement of part of a tyre over the road surface while in contact with it.
1936Proc. Inst. Automobile Engineers XXX. 733 Features in independent springing..tending to prevent ‘scrub’ when the suspension is functioning. 1959Manch. Guardian 27 July 2/3 Braking and acceleration also cause scrub. 1973Country Life 11 Oct. 1077/3 Hard cornering produces front-tyre scrub, but the back wheels stay firmly on the road.
c. slang. A cancellation or abandonment, spec. of a flying mission. Cf. scrub v.1 4 a.
1952M. Tripp Faith is Windsock i. 14 We are marking time at the moment, three scrubs in a row. 1958N.Y. Times Mag. 16 Mar. 10/2 The backstage crew is made up of engineers and technicians who work themselves to a frazzle during the long countdown..which may end not in a firing but in a series of ‘holds’ or a ‘scrub’—cancellation. 1962V. Grissom in Into Orbit 125, I was prepared for the scrub, and it was not long in coming.
2. A broom or brush with short hard bristles. Also spec. in Glass-painting, a brush used to scrape out lights in a coat of paint. Cf. scrub v.1 5 b.
1687Miège Gt. Fr. Dict. 11, Scrub, or old Broom, un vieux Balais... She has but a Scrub to sweep the Room withall. 1829Yng. Lady's Bk. 466 The brushes used [for painting on velvet] are called scrubs. 1882Worc. Exhib. Catal. iii. 57 Brushes for slippers, deck and paint scrubs. 1896H. Holiday Stained Glass as Art i. 23 The lights are taken out..with a hoghair brush with the hairs cut short, called a scrub. 1902E. R. Suffling Treatise on Art of Glass Painting v. 89 Hog-hair fitches are converted into what glass painters call ‘scrubs’... Scrubs are made in a variety of shapes—skew, round, flat, square, pointed. 1972R. & G. Metcalf Making Stained Glass 134 Employing some of the longer-haired scrubs to stipple the edges of the remaining matt.
3. One who scrubs; a hard-worked servant, a drudge. Perhaps with some reference to n.1 5.
[1707Farquhar Beaux' Stratagem Dram. Pers., Scrub, Servant to Mr. Sullen.] 1709[E. Ward] Rambling Fuddle-Caps 10 [The cook-wench says] Altho' I'm a Scrub that is doom'd to a Kitchin. 1776Burney Hist. Mus. I. 304 He [Pan as described by Lucian] was a kind of Scrub, a drudge, fit for all work. 1888Poor Nellie 447 A young girl of fifteen—a kitchen scrub he had never seen before.
4. The third grade in the quality of the heads of teasels; cf. king, middling, queen.
1766Museum Rust. VI. 2 Another, or third sort, are such of the largest, or those which grew on the middle stem, as are damaged by the mildew, wet, or other accident... These therefore are thrown to a third sort, and denominated scrubs. 1813[see queen n. 9 a].
5. attrib. scrub-grass (see quots.).
1814Brackenridge Views Louisiana 206 Through all these islands, and on the Missouri bottoms, there are great quantities of rushes, commonly called *scrub grass. 1898Syd. Soc. Lex., Scrub⁓grass, a syn. for Scouring rush [Equisetum hyemale].
▸ attrib. orig. and chiefly U.S. Designating an article or suit of loose-fitting clothing, usually made of cotton or other washable fabric, worn as a uniform by hospital personnel. Chiefly in scrub suit. Cf. scrub v.1 3d.
1954Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald Amer. 30 May 16/1 A pied piper in a white mask and scrub suit is luring children into the operating room for tonsillectomies at St. Joseph's Hospital these days. 1986R. H. Coombs et al. Inside Doctoring i. 50 Soon the sheets, the floor, and the resident's scrub shirt were spattered with blood. 1991S. N. Dyer July Ward in J. Morrow Nebula Awards 28 (1994) 125 The team coming off call will continue to wear wrinkled, blood-spattered scrubsuits, as a visual reminder to everyone else that they are tired. 1998Village Voice (N.Y.) 25 Aug. 18/2 Walton puts on her cotton scrub pants..and walks to the NYU Medical Center.
▸ In pl. orig. and chiefly U.S. Loose-fitting clothing, usually made of cotton or other washable fabric, worn as a uniform by hospital personnel or (in later use) in other institutional settings.
1982N.Y. Times Mag. 23 May 58/4 The residents had changed out of their scrubs, the baggy pajamalike clothes worn in the operating room, and were dressed in shirts and ties. 1987S. Paretsky Bitter Medicine ii. 27 He came out to us, accompanied by another man in scrubs. 1998R. Price Freedomland iv. xxxii. 525 A corrections van backed up to a heavy door and unloaded six young black women in royal-blue prison scrubs. 2002New Yorker 18 Mar. 122/2 Scrubs, which are made in a rainbow of colors and a variety of prints, have become the standard hospital attire for nurses, orderlies, technicians, and maintenance personnel alike.
▸ A deep-cleaning, mildly abrasive soap. Freq. in facial scrub.
1966Arlington Heights (Illinois) Herald (Electronic text) 1 Sept. (advt.) Beauty preparations (facial freshener, facial moisturizer, facial scrub and facial emollient)..to inspire a glowing flawless complexion. 1980Washington Post 7 Aug. b5/5 She applied ‘a scrub’, a grainy, slightly abrasive lotion of honey and almond paste that..‘cleanses away dead tissue’. 1996Hello! 27 Jan. 86/1 Wet your face with warm water and gently massage with a scrub to leave your skin looking plump and fresh. 2002Daily Tel. 14 Nov. 22/5 Exfoliate your face and neck once a week, using a facial scrub or ‘peeling’ cream if your skin is dry or sensitive.
▪ III. † scrub, n.3 Obs.
[? f. scrub v.: cf. scrubbado.]
The itch.
1709O. Dykes Eng. Prov., Union Prov. (ed. 2) 7 We English are as much afflicted with the Scurvy, as they are with the Scrub. 1719D'Urfey Pills V. 311 The Pox, the Mulligrubs, the Bonny Scrubs.
▪ IV. scrub, a.|skrʌb|
[attrib. use of scrub n.1]
1. Mean, insignificant, contemptible.
1710–11Swift Jrnl. to Stella 13 Jan., Upon Steele's leaving off, there were two or three scrub Tatlers came out, and one of them holds on still. 1743H. Walpole Let. to Mann 3 Oct., How dismal,..how scrub does this town look. 1813Scott 9 Jan. in Lockhart III. i. 36 Charlotte is with me just now at this little scrub habitation. 1840J. P. Kennedy Quodlibet 158 If he..makes a little fortune, we can call him a..Scrub Aristocrat. 1881Harper's Mag. June 88/2 Her little scrub-class in the Sunday-school. 1901M. E. Ryan That Girl Montana ix. 125 There are always a lot of scrub whites ready to take advantage of war signals.
†2. ? = Bob (tail). Obs.
1711Lond. Gaz. No. 4888/4 A large scrub Tail, dapple grey.
3. Chiefly U.S.
a. Of vegetation: low-growing, stunted.
Not clearly distinguishable from Combs. s.v. scrub n.1 6 a.
1749[see scrub-tree s.v. scrub n.1 6 a]. 1779W. McKendry Jrnl. 29 Aug. in Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc. 2nd Ser. III. 465 Their breastwork was made of pine Logs coverḍ with green skrub bushes. 1816U. Brown Jrnl. 9 June in Maryland Hist. Mag. (1915) X. 266 Pines of a scruby kind, Jack Oaks and other Scrub wood. 1872Rep. Vermont Board Agric. I. 78 Men are as choice of a little scrub apple tree..as they would be were it classed among the favorite varieties of the day. 1904G. S. Porter Freckles ix. 196 There was a swarm of wild bees settled on a scrub-thorn only a few yards away. 1975A. Bergman Hollywood & Le Vine (1976) viii. 104 A residential street that ended in sand and scrub bush.
b. Of livestock: of inferior breed or physique.
1744W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman Apr. xviii. 118 A petty Dealer,..keeping a scrub Horse, for carrying Fish about the Country. 1839Jrnl. Indiana Ho. Representatives 8 Jan. 232 The half-blooded calves of the improved Durhams will sell, at weaning, for $20, while those of our scrub breed will only bring 3. 1868Rep. Iowa State Agric. Soc. 1867 130 The general idea pervades the minds of our farmers that a larger..animal of blooded stock can be produced by the same amount of feed, than can be made with the same feed fed to scrub stock. Ibid., Our stock is scrub. 1930C. Addison in Hansard Commons 30 Oct. 269 Imported Irish stock is of an enormously higher standard than it was a few years ago. That is due to the fact that they have eliminated the ‘scrub’ bull. 1948Minneapolis Morn. Tribune 28 Sept. 11/5 She couldn't resist givin' him a Home, even though she had to admit that he was a very ugly lookin' scrub cat. 1973B. Broadfoot Ten Lost Years i. 7, I slept in the barn with about six of the sorriest looking scrub horses you have ever seen. Broom tails.
4. a. (Cf. scrub n.1 5 c and scratch n.1) scrub-crew, -nine (see quot. 1891); scrub-race, -game, an impromptu race or game between competitors who have not trained beforehand; also fig.
1891Century Dict. s.v. Scrub, Scrub-crew, nine, etc. in contests or games, a crew, nine, or the like, the members of which have not trained beforehand.
1868N.Y. Herald 11 Aug. 9/4 A club..presenting on the field the appearance of a ‘scrub nine’.
1791Address of Lad who carries Connecticut Courant (broadside), Did not our pious father S—n Run a scrub race with Mr. Chairman? 1804Fredericktown (Maryland) Herald 10 Mar. 3/3 His antagonists seem sanguine enough for any bet, that he is either to be distanced, or will make but a scrub race for the amusement of the Gentlemen of the turf. 1807–8W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 283 To start in a scrub⁓race for honour and renown. 1878N. Amer. Rev. CXXVII. 14 The scrub-race of American politics. 1894Outing XXIV. 145/1 In a scrub race the helmsman cracks on until the lee gunwale is almost on a level with the water. 1947C. Price Trails I Rode 190 He had put in most of his life travelling around the country with some kind of an old scrub race horse.
b. Hence in general sporting use. Of a team or player: not first-class, not of regular standing; of a game: played by scrub or scratch teams. Also fig.
1867Ball Player's Chron. 7 Nov. 1/1 A scrub match was arranged with seven of the Star nine and two others against ten in the field. 1892J. L. Ford Dr. Dodd's School i. 5 The school eleven..were playing a practice game of football with a scrub eleven enrolled for the occasion. 1920W. Camp Football without Coach 63 You will have your regular center playing against a scrub center. 1947Chicago Tribune 29 Jan. 29/2 Perhaps football could be cleaned up if it had more scrub teams. 1951Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 19 Mar. 1/3 The Chinese have employed in the past second-rate troops in the front line. Behind them are superior troops ready to take advantage of any breakthrough made by the scrub team.
▪ V. scrub, v.1|skrʌb|
Forms: 3–4 scrobbe, 6–7 skrub, 6– scrub.
[Of obscure history: adopted from or corresp. to MLG., MDu. schrobben, schrubben (whence G. schrubben, schruppen, Sw. skrubba, Da. skrubbe), perh. related to scrape; cf. grub v.
The existence of the variant shrub v. suggests the possibility that there may have been an OE. *scrobbian or *scrybban. In the mod. sense 3 the word may perh. have been re-imported from Du. as a nautical term: cf. swab.]
†1. trans. To curry-comb (a horse). Obs.
13..K. Alis. 4310 The knave greytheth the hors, and scrobbeth [Laud MS. Þe knaues graiþen her hors, & shrubben].
†2. To scratch, rub (a part of one's body). Also intr. for refl. Obs.
1596Nashe Saffron Walden O 2 b, He put his hand in his pocket but to scrub his arme a little that itcht. 1598Marston Sco. Villanie ii. vi. E 8, Capro reads, sweares, scrubs, and sweares againe, Now by my soule an admirable straine. 1643Lightfoot Glean. Exod. 17 He is glad to get a potsheard to skrub himselfe. 1725Bradley's Fam. Dict. s.v. Vives, With a Clout fastned to a Stick scrub the Place four or five Mornings, until the inflam'd Part becomes soft and ripe.
3. a. To clean (esp. a floor, wood, etc.) by rubbing with a hard brush and water. Also fig.
c1595T. Maynarde Drake's Voy. (Hakluyt Soc.) 13 If part of our companie had been sent thither upon our first arrival at Rio de la Hacha, doubtles we had done much goode, but now they [the Spaniards] had scrube [? read scrubd] it very bare. 1697W. Dampier Voy. I. 52 We careen'd Capt. Wright's Bark and scrubb'd the Sugar-prize and got 2 Guns out of the Wrecks. 1709W. King Art of Love viii. 1104 You'll scrub the rooms, or make the bed. 1828Scott F.M. Perth Introd., I hastened to the spot, and found the well-meaning traveller scrubbing the floor like a housemaid. 1896A. Austin England's Darling i. ii, These poor arms you fold about you now Oft scrub the settle, scour the pans, and knead The homely dough.
b. transf. To rub with something bristly.
1844Thackeray Arabella in Colburn's New Monthly ii. 170 He has a kind word for both, and scrubs the little girl's fresh cheek with his bristly beard.
c. absol. or intr.
1870J. P. Smith Widow Goldsmith's Daughter xxvi. 416 She began to clean the boots..while she whistled a jig and scrubbed for dear life. 1895‘G. Mortimer’ Like Stars that Fall ii. 22, I must scrub and clean for you the rest of my life.
d. intr. for refl. To wash (usually with a brush) and disinfect the hands and forearms prior to performing or assisting at a surgical operation. Usu. with up.
1900Gould & Warren Internat. Text-bk. Surg. I. xi. 283 While scrubbing, it is best to keep the hands and arms immersed in hot water, and particular attention should be given to the finger-nails. 1919E. W. H. Groves Surg. Operations i. 10 The sister scrubs up, covers herself in sterile gown, cap, gloves, and mask. 1944Brit. Jrnl. Surgery XXXII. 25/2 The insertion was carried out by a member of the theatre staff who had ‘scrubbed up’ and donned the usual cap, mask, gown, and gloves. 1966I. Jefferies House-Surgeon x. 185, I scrubbed, with Bernard alongside me asking questions about operative technique. 1976Lancet 25 Dec. 1402/2 His asepsis was extraordinary. When he had spent the requisite ten minutes scrubbing up, he would dip his hands routinely into three successive bowls containing fluids of different colours.
e. intr. Of a horse-rider: to rub the arms and legs urgently upon a horse's neck and flanks to urge the horse to move faster.
1958J. Hislop From Start to Finish viii. 68 If you are riding a long-striding horse, you will find that you must scrub more slowly than on a short-striding horse. 1961F. C. Avis Sportsman's Gloss. 236/2 Scrub, of a jockey, to move the arms and legs, particularly as the end of a race is approaching. 1977Horse & Hound 14 Jan. 21/1 By now the field was spreadeagled and scrubbing to keep in touch with the hounds.
4. a. trans. To cancel, scrap, call off; to eliminate, erase; to reject, dismiss. Also with out. colloq.
The current widespread use was reinforced by the popularity of the expression amongst servicemen in the war of 1939–45 (see quot. 1945).
1828W. Scott Jrnl. 22 Mar. (1941) 212 If I were alone, I could scrub it [sc. a visit to London], but there is no doing that with Anne. 1943H. E. Bates There's Something in Air 77 He was worked up to a very high state of tension..when Control informed him that the whole show would be scrubbed. 1944Yank 30 June 8 At 1400 hours there was a briefing; at 1500 the mission was scrubbed. 1945Spectator 25 May 478/1 The author can possibly justify the inclusion of the term ‘scrub’, meaning ‘to cancel’, in a collection of R.A.F. slang. The expression is in common use in the Royal Navy and has been for many generations. It derives from the days when all signals and orders were written on a slate. When the signals were cancelled or orders executed, the words on the slate were ‘scrubbed out’ or, equally correctly ‘washed out’. 1953Sun (Baltimore) 4 May 2/2 What do you mean that my mission is scrubbed? It's my mission and no one scrubs my mission but me. 1958‘J. Brogan’ Cummings Report xix. 202 He might have told the operator to scrub it from the record. 1962Listener 8 Feb. 247/2 At the end of the war some people realized that the best thing to do would be to scrub it [sc. the national debt] out. 1965J. Porter Dover Three xiii. 148 She doesn't sound the type of woman we're looking for. Scrub her! 1974‘P. B. Yuill’ Bornless Keeper ii. 17, I suggest scrubbing that thing on the Kent miners, can't see any foreign sales there. 1980News & Observer (Raleigh, N. Carolina) 28 Oct. 10/1 Metropolitan Opera House musicians voted Monday to accept a new contract with the opera company, ending—at least temporarily—a strike that forced the Met. to scrub the 1980 season.
b. intr. To manage with difficulty, to ‘scrape’ along. Also with on. colloq.
1831M. Edgeworth Let. 29 Mar. (1971) 507 He..has run through two large fortunes and is now scrubbing on upon a few thousands. 1889W. Davidson Stories N.Z. Life ii. 48 Dennis O'Brien had scrubbed along for many years, a miserable kind of existence, saving and hoarding, and living on the ‘smell of an oil rag’. 1901Merwin & Webster Calumet ‘K’ xi. 202 The rest of the road had to scrub along as best it could. 1905G. Bell Let. 17 Apr. (1927) I. x. 212, I hope in a week or so I shall begin to scrub along.
c. trans. To reprimand severely; to punish Mil. slang (chiefly Naut.).
1911[see matelot 1]. 1916‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin v. 76, I..jolly nearly got badly scrubbed for exceeding my duty and abducting the General. 1949J. R. Cole It was so Late 62 That was my first station after they scrubbed me.
d. intr. Const. round. To dispense with, ignore; to drop (a subject). (See also quot. 1943.) slang (orig. Mil.). Cf. sense 4 a above.
1943Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 58 Scrub round, to wash off the slate, to agree to forget, to let bygones be bygones. 1948Partridge Dict. Forces' Slang 163 One declines an invitation to a party with ‘Thanks very much, but you'll have to scrub round me, I'm Duty Boy to-morrow’. 1962J. Wain Strike Father Dead v. 222 ‘I just said I didn't want to break the contract we had at present,’ I said. ‘I felt it was no good trying to scrub round it.’ 1964T. White tr. P. Leulliette's St. Michael & Dragon 189, I was required to do no less than fifteen days' cells. Reason: disobedience. Luckily, the captain had a sense of humour and finally scrubbed round it.
5. a. techn. To treat (a material, esp. a gas or vapour) so as to remove impurities, usu. by bringing it into contact with a liquid; to wash out or remove (impurities) in such a way.
1885C. G. W. Lock Workshop Receipts Ser. iv. 5/1 The particular arrangement of the interior of the scrubber adopted here, is that patented by Henry Green of Preston, and used in the gasworks there for scrubbing gas. 1931Hoffert & Claxton Motor Benzole viii. 211 In this type of washer, the gas is scrubbed by the oil in the form of a fine spray in six or more superimposed sections or chambers, through which the gas ascends in turn. 1941Thorpe's Dict. Appl. Chem. (ed. 4) V. 461/1 The [coal] gas is cooled by passage through condensers before scrubbing out the ammonia. 1961G. Claxton Benzoles viii. 213 The greater proportion of the benzole is scrubbed out of the gas by means of wash oil. 1972Sci. Amer. Oct. 26/1 Cooled and scrubbed with water to remove dust, the clean gas could be burned itself to provide the desired clean heat. 1974Daily Tel. 22 Feb. 7/6 The diver inside the suit operates at ordinary surface pressures, and breathes oxygen which is continuously scrubbed and recirculated. 1979Sci. Amer. Oct. 74/2 Consideration is being given to adding nitrogen-removing devices to the procedures that now ‘scrub’ sulfur dioxide..from stack gases.
b. Glass-painting. To scrape away (paint) or to scrape out (lights) with a scrub. Cf. scrub n.2 2.
1897L. F. Day Windows vi. 65 The practice in the sixteenth century was mainly, by a process of scrubbing lights out of matted or washed tints of brown, to get very considerable modelling. 1910Encycl. Brit. XII. 106/2 The modelling was got by scrubbing away the paint with a dry hog-hair brush.
6. In Comb., as scrub-broom, scrub-girl, scrub-man, scrub pail, scrub-water, scrub-woman; (sense 3 d) scrub nurse, scrub room.
1675V. Alsop Anti-Sozzo iii. §2. 223 He brings nothing New, his Rayling faculty, like an old *Skrub-broom, being worn to the Stumps. 1839Mrs. Kirkland in Griswold Prose Writers Amer. (1847) 464 Fetch the broom, Betsey! and the scrub-broom, Betsey!
1905Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer 24 Jan. 3 Once a soldier in the army of the great white czar, now a *scrubman in one of the large department stores.
1927Amer. Speech II. 312/2 The ‘*scrub nurse’ is she who handles the instruments and works within the sterile field, differing from the ‘dirty nurse’ who may touch only contaminated or unsterilized things. 1958F. G. Slaughter Daybreak i. vii. 54 He stepped out of the hard white cone of the operating lights in response to a scrub nurse's signal. 1972M. Crichton Terminal Man ii. i. 57 Two scrub nurses were working in the cavernous gray-tiled space. They were setting out sterile tables and drapes.
1927Amer. Speech II. 312/1 In the Operating Room one finds ‘*scrub rooms’ where the surgeon and his assistants literally scrub their arms and hands with brushes and green soap. 1977D. Bennett Jigsaw Man 13 The surgeon..strode briskly to the scrub-room... The scrub-nurse removed his mask and gloves.
1935Z. N. Hurston Mules & Men 336 It is put in *scrub water to scrub the house. 1975New Yorker 28 July 31/2 He catches her scent of gray scrubwater as she passes.
1873N.Y. Herald 16 Sept. 8/5 We have a specimen of this watch-dog policy in the case of a poor *scrub woman. 1895Forum (N.Y.) Jan. 556 A majority of the mothers work out as washerwomen or scrubwomen. 1942E. Paul Narrow St. i. 2 Eugénie, a pale, brown-eyed scrubwoman not yet forty. 1973E. McGirr Bardel's Murder i. 6 A scrubwoman did what was necessary in the cleaning line. 1980G. M. Fraser Mr American xxii. 428 There's one way of treating a suffragette who's a scrub-woman..and another of treating a peer's daughter.
Add: [c indigo][3.] f.[/c] Of tyres: to slide or scrape across the road surface, esp. when cornering. Also trans. with off, to lose or cause the loss of (speed) by ‘scrubbing’. Cf. scrub n.2 1 b.
1976Autocar 26 June 7/2 It's about 10 yards from the mouth of the side street to the alley, and I have to scrub off about 20 mph in that distance. 1980Ellinger & Hathaway Automotive Suspension, Steering, & Brakes xv. 228/1 The tire scrubs on the road surface as the wheel direction is changed. 1980Dirt Bike Oct. 46/1 You scrub off some speed with the killer brakes and catch a gear or two down. 1983Times 11 Apr. 8/4 Managed to spin it about three times to scrub off some of the speed, but hit the bank head-on, still going fast. 1989Aviation Week 27 Nov. 84/2 Harold Marthinsen..said the nose-gear tires ‘were scrubbing’ as the aircraft moved down the runway.
▪ VI. † scrub, v.2 Obs.
Also skrub.
[? f. scrub n.1 (sense 5).]
intr. To go in mean attire.
a1591H. Smith Serm. Wedd. Garmt. 18 Therfore when we may goe in our maisters attire, shall wee scrubbe like beggars patched in our rags? 1597Bp. Hall Sat. i. iii. 7 Now soouping in side robes of Royalty, That earst did skrub in lowsie brokery. |