brush definition | Dictionary.com

brush

1 [bruhsh]

–noun

1.	an implement consisting of bristles, hair, or the like, set in or attached to a handle, used for painting, cleaning, polishing, grooming, etc.

2.	one of a pair of devices consisting of long, thin handles with wire bristles attached, used in jazz or dance bands for keeping a soft, rhythmic beat on the trap drums or the cymbals.

3.	the bushy tail of an animal, esp. of a fox.

Electricity.

a.	a conductor, often made of carbon or copper or a combination of the two, serving to maintain electric contact between stationary and moving parts of a machine, generator, or other apparatus.

b.	brush discharge.

5.	a feathery or hairy tuft or tassel, as on the tip of a kernel of grain or on a man's hat.

6.	an act or instance of brushing; application of a brush.

7.	a light, stroking touch.

8.	a brief encounter: He has already had one brush with the law.

9.	a close approach, esp. to something undesirable or harmful: a brush with disaster.

–verb (used with object)

10.	to sweep, paint, clean, polish, etc., with a brush.

11.	to touch lightly in passing; pass lightly over: His lips brushed her ear.

12.	to remove by brushing or by lightly passing over: His hand brushed a speck of lint from his coat.

–verb (used without object)

13.	to move or skim with a slight contact.

—Verb phrases

14.	brush aside, to disregard; ignore: Our complaints were simply brushed aside.

15.	brush off, to rebuff; send away: She had never been brushed off so rudely before.

16.	brush up on, to revive, review, or resume (studies, a skill, etc.): She's thinking of brushing up on her tennis. Also, brush up.

—Idioms

17.	get the brush, to be rejected or rebuffed: She greeted Jim effusively, but I got the brush.

18.	give the brush, to ignore, rebuff, etc.: If you're still angry with him, give him the brush.

Origin:
1350–1400; (n.) ME brusshe, prob. to be identified with brush ² , if orig. sense was implement made from twigs, etc., culled from brushwood; (v.) ME brushen to hasten, rush, prob. < OF brosser to travel (through brush), v. deriv. of broce (see brush ² )

Related forms:

brush⋅a⋅ble, adjective

brusher, noun

brushlike, adjective

Synonyms:
8. engagement, action, skirmish. See struggle.

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brush

2 [bruhsh]

–noun

1.	a dense growth of bushes, shrubs, etc.; scrub; thicket.

2.	a pile or covering of lopped or broken branches; brushwood.

3.	bushes and low trees growing in thick profusion, esp. close to the ground.

4.	Also called brushland. land or an area covered with thickly growing bushes and low trees.

5.	backwoods; a sparsely settled wooded region.

Origin:
1350–1400; ME brusshe < MF broisse, OF broce underbrush (cf. AF brousson wood, brusseie heath), perh. < VL *bruscia excrescences, deriv. of L bruscum knot or excrescence on a maple tree

Related forms:

brush⋅i⋅ness, noun

Brush

[bruhsh]

–noun

Katharine, 1902–52, U.S. novelist and short-story writer.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To brush

brush¹ (brŭsh)

1. A device consisting of bristles fastened into a handle, used in scrubbing, polishing, or painting.
2. The act of using this device.
A light touch in passing; a graze.
An instance of contact with something undesirable or dangerous: a brush with the law; a brush with death.
A bushy tail: the brush of a fox.
A sliding connection completing a circuit between a fixed and a moving conductor.
A snub; a brushoff.

v. brushed, brush·ing, brush·es

v. tr.

1. To clean, polish, or groom with a brush.
2. To apply with or as if with motions of a brush.
3. To remove with or as if with motions of a brush.
To dismiss abruptly or curtly: brushed the matter aside; brushed an old friend off.
To touch lightly in passing; graze against.

v. intr.

To use or apply a brush.
To move past something so as to touch it lightly.

Phrasal Verb(s):
brush back Baseball To force (a batter) to move away from the plate by throwing an inside pitch.
brush up

To refresh one's memory.
To renew a skill.

[Middle English brusshe, from Old French brosse, brushwood, brush; see brush².]
brush'er n., brush'y adj.

Synonyms: These verbs mean to make light contact with something in passing: Her arm brushed mine. I flicked the paper with my finger. The arrow glanced off the tree. The knife blade grazed the countertop. A taxi shaved the curb. The oar skims the pond's surface.

brush² (brŭsh)

1. A dense growth of bushes or shrubs.
2. Land covered by such a growth.
Cut or broken branches.

[Middle English brusshe, from Old French brosse, brushwood, from Vulgar Latin *bruscia, perhaps from Latin bruscum, knot on a maple.]
brush'y adj.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Brush

Brush\, n. [OE. brusche, OF. broche, broce, brosse, brushwood, F. brosse brush, LL. brustia, bruscia, fr. OHG. brusta, brust, bristle, G. borste bristle, b["u]rste brush. See Bristle, n., and cf. Browse.]

1. An instrument composed of bristles, or other like material, set in a suitable back or handle, as of wood, bone, or ivory, and used for various purposes, as in removing dust from clothes, laying on colors, etc. Brushes have different shapes and names according to their use; as, clothes brush, paint brush, tooth brush, etc.

2. The bushy tail of a fox.

3. (Zo["o]l.) A tuft of hair on the mandibles.

4. Branches of trees lopped off; brushwood.

5. A thicket of shrubs or small trees; the shrubs and small trees in a wood; underbrush.

6. (Elec.) A bundle of flexible wires or thin plates of metal, used to conduct an electrical current to or from the commutator of a dynamo, electric motor, or similar apparatus.

7. The act of brushing; as, to give one's clothes a brush; a rubbing or grazing with a quick motion; a light touch; as, we got a brush from the wheel as it passed.

[As leaves] have with one winter's brush Fell from their boughts. --Shak.

8. A skirmish; a slight encounter; a shock or collision; as, to have a brush with an enemy.

Let grow thy sinews till their knots be strong, And tempt not yet the brushes of the war. --Shak.

9. A short contest, or trial, of speed.

Let us enjoy a brush across the country. --Cornhill Mag.

Electrical brush, a form of the electric discharge characterized by a brushlike appearance of luminous rays diverging from an electrified body.

Brush

Brush\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Brushed; p. pr. & vb. n. Brushing.] [OE. bruschen; cf. F. brosser. See Brush, n.]

1. To apply a brush to, according to its particular use; to rub, smooth, clean, paint, etc., with a brush. "A' brushes his hat o' mornings." --Shak.

2. To touch in passing, or to pass lightly over, as with a brush.

Some spread their sailes, some with strong oars sweep The waters smooth, and brush the buxom wave. --Fairfax.

Brushed with the kiss of rustling wings. --Milton.

3. To remove or gather by brushing, or by an act like that of brushing, or by passing lightly over, as wind; -- commonly with off.

As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed With raven's feather from unwholesome fen. --Shak.

And from the boughts brush off the evil dew. --Milton.

To brush aside, to remove from one's way, as with a brush.

To brush away, to remove, as with a brush or brushing motion.

To brush up, to paint, or make clean or bright with a brush; to cleanse or improve; to renew.

You have commissioned me to paint your shop, and I have done my best to brush you up like your neighbors. --Pope.

Brush

Brush\, v. i. To move nimbly in haste; to move so lightly as scarcely to be perceived; as, to brush by.

Snatching his hat, he brushed off like the wind. --Goldsmith.

Brush

Brush\, n. In Australia, a dense growth of vegetation in good soil, including shrubs and trees, mostly small.

Language Translation for : brush

Spanish: cepillo,

German: die Bürste,

Japanese: ブラシ

More Translations »

brush (1)

"dust-sweeper," 1377, from O.Fr. broisse "a brush," probably from V.L. *bruscia "a bunch of new shoots" (used to sweep away dust), perhaps from P.Gmc. *bruskaz "underbrush." Brush off "rebuff, dismiss" is from 1941.

brush (2)

"shrubbery," 1330, from Anglo-Fr. bruce "brushwood," O.N.Fr. broche, O.Fr. brosse, from Gallo-Romance *brocia, perhaps from *brucus "heather," or possibly from the same source as brush (1). Brushfire is from 1850.

brush

In addition to the idioms beginning with brush, also see give someone the air (brush off); have a brush with; tarred with the same brush.

brush

device composed of natural or synthetic fibres set into a handle that is used for cleaning, grooming, polishing, writing, or painting. Brushes were used by man as early as the Paleolithic Period (began about 2,500,000 years ago) to apply pigment, as shown by the cave paintings of Altamira in Spain and the Perigord in France. In historical times the early Egyptians used brushes to create their elaborate tomb paintings, while the ancient Chinese employed the tip of a long-haired brush to make the many intricate characters of their writing, a practice continued in the Orient today.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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