1621 J. Taylor Praise of Beggery sig. D1^v 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.

1900 Daily News 14 Aug. 5/1 Afterwards the Carlton goes over to the Junior Carlton, the senior club requiring a scrub up.

a1902 S. Butler Way of All Flesh (1903) lxxii. 331 Ellen had given it another scrub from top to bottom.

1937 Archit. Rev. 81 52 (caption) A detail in one of the surgeon's ‘scrub-up’ lobbies, looking through an observatory window into an operating theatre.

1953 K. Tennant Joyful Condemned xxxix. 383 Rene eyed May's house possessively. ‘First thing..this gets a good scrub.’

1964 G. L. Cohen What's Wrong with Hospitals? vii. 125 The surgeon..spared me five minutes between a thyroidectomy and his next scrub-up.

1973 Daily 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.

1936 Proc. Inst. Automobile Engineers 30 733 Features in independent springing..tending to prevent ‘scrub’ when the suspension is functioning.

1959 Manch. Guardian 27 July 2/3 Braking and acceleration also cause scrub.

1973 Country Life 11 Oct. 1077/3 Hard cornering produces front-tyre scrub, but the back wheels stay firmly on the road.

1952 M. Tripp Faith is Windsock i. 14 We are marking time at the moment, three scrubs in a row.

1958 N.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.

1962 V. Grissom in J. Glenn et al. Into Orbit 125 I was prepared for the scrub, and it was not long in coming.

1749 Lady Luxborough Let. 12 Dec. in Lett. to W. Shenstone (1775) 163 I ordered a crooked row of scrub trees to be fallen.

1779 W. McKendry Jrnl. 29 Aug. in Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc. 2nd Ser. III. 465 Their breastwork was made of pine Logs cover^ḍ with green skrub bushes.

1816 U. Brown Jrnl. 9 June in Maryland Hist. Mag. (1915) X. 266 Pines of a scruby kind, Jack Oaks and other Scrub wood.

1872 1st Rep. Vermont State Board Agric. 1871–2 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.

1904 G. S. Porter Freckles ix. 196 There was a swarm of wild bees settled on a scrub-thorn only a few yards away.

1975 A. Bergman Hollywood & Le Vine (1976) viii. 104 A residential street that ended in sand and scrub bush.

1744 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman Apr. xiv. 136 A petty Dealer,..keeping a scrub Horse, for carrying Fish about the Country.

1839 Jrnl. 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.

1868 14th Ann. Rep. 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.

1868 14th Ann. Rep. Iowa State Agric. Soc. 1867 130 Our stock is scrub.

1868 14th Ann. Rep. Iowa State Agric. Soc. 1867 99 To raise and fatten a scrub steer and put him into market at four years old.

1872 Trans. Dept. Agric. Illinois 204 A common scrub hog can scarcely be found in the county.

1905 Springfield (Mass.) Weekly Republ. 28 July 5 The term ‘scrub’ is applied..to cattle that have no particular breeding, no matter how good or bad they may be.

1930 C. 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.

1948 Minneapolis Morning 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.

1973 B. 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.

c1595 T. Maynarde Sir Francis Drake his Voy. (1849) 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.

1697 W. Dampier New Voy. around World iii. 52 We careen'd Captain Wright's Bark, and scrubb'd the Sugar-prize; and got 2 Guns out of the Wrecks.

1709 W. King Art of Love (new ed.) viii. 1104 You'll scrub the rooms, or make the bed.

1828 W. Scott Fair Maid of Perth Introd., in Chron. Canongate 2nd Ser. I. 8 I hastened to the spot, and found the well-meaning traveller scrubbing the floor like a housemaid.

1896 A. Austin England's Darling i. ii. 12 These poor arms you fold about you now, Oft scrub the settle, scour the pans, and knead The homely dough.

1844 W. M. Thackeray 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.

1870 J. P. Smith Widow Goldsmith's Daughter xxvi. 416 She began to clean the boots..while she whistled a jig and scrubbed for dear life.

1892 ‘J. S. Winter’ Mere Luck ix Scrubbing away at a flight of stone steps.

1895 ‘G. Mortimer’ Like Stars that Fall ii. 22 I must scrub and clean for you the rest of my life.

1900 A. P. Gould & J. C. 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.

1919 E. W. H. Groves Surg. Operations i. 10 The sister scrubs up, covers herself in sterile gown, cap, gloves, and mask.

1944 Brit. Jrnl. Surgery 32 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.

1966 I. Jefferies House-surgeon x. 185 I scrubbed, with Bernard alongside me asking questions about operative technique.

1976 Lancet 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.

1958 J. 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.

1961 F. 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.

1977 Horse & Hound 14 Jan. 21/1 By now the field was spreadeagled and scrubbing to keep in touch with the hounds.

1828 W. 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.

1943 H. 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.

1944 Yank 30 June 8 At 1400 hours there was a briefing; at 1500 the mission was scrubbed.

1945 Spectator 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’.

1953 Sun (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 Rep. xix. 202 He might have told the operator to scrub it from the record.

1962 Listener 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.

1965 J. 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.

1980 News & 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.

1831 M. Edgeworth Let. 29 Mar. (1971) 507 He..has run through two large fortunes and is now scrubbing on upon a few thousands.

1889 W. 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’.

1901 S. Merwin & H. K. Webster Calumet ‘K’ xi. 202 The rest of the road had to scrub along as best it could.

1905 G. Bell Let. 17 Apr. (1927) I. x. 212 I hope in a week or so I shall begin to scrub along.

1911 ‘Guns Q.F.C.’ & ‘Phyl Theeluker’ Middle Watch Musings 8 You've just got two old and respected matelots well scrubbed for nuffing.

1916 ‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin v. 76 I..jolly nearly got badly scrubbed for exceeding my duty and abducting the General.

1949 J. R. Cole It was so Late 62 That was my first station after they scrubbed me.

1943 J. L. Hunt & A. G. Pringle Service Slang 58 Scrub round, to wash off the slate, to agree to forget, to let bygones be bygones.

1948 E. Partridge et al. 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’.

1962 J. 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.’

1964 T. White tr. P. Leulliette St. Michael 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.

1885 C. G. W. Lock Workshop Receipts 4th Ser. 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.

1931 Hoffert & 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.

1941 Thorpe's Dict. Appl. Chem. (ed. 4) V. 461/1 The [coal] gas is cooled by passage through condensers before scrubbing out the ammonia.

1961 G. Claxton Benzoles viii. 213 The greater proportion of the benzole is scrubbed out of the gas by means of wash oil.

1972 Sci. 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.

1974 Daily Tel. 22 Feb. 7/6 The diver inside the suit operates at ordinary surface pressures, and breathes oxygen which is continuously scrubbed and recirculated.

1979 Sci. Amer. Oct. 74/2 Consideration is being given to adding nitrogen-removing devices to the procedures that now ‘scrub’ sulfur dioxide..from stack gases.

1897 L. 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.

1910 Encycl. Brit. XII. 106/2 The modelling was got by scrubbing away the paint with a dry hog-hair brush.