scrub

C2+ Topic:Actions & Processes

US /skrʌb/ UK /skrʌb/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

verb
to rub hard to clean; to cancel; low brushwood or stunted vegetation

She knelt to scrub the stubborn stain from the kitchen floor.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 verb · to rub hard to clean; to... scour rub clean wash cancel abort brushwood thicket

Opposites

soil dirty keep proceed

Word family

Forms scrubby

Derived forms scrubberscrubbyscrubbing

Related forms shrub

Etymology

From Middle English 'scrobben', probably from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German 'schrobben' ('to scrub'); the 'brushwood' sense is a variant of 'shrub', of Old English origin.

schrobben Middle Dutch

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Actions & Processes

External links

# scrub

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** verb
**IPA (US):** /skrʌb/
**IPA (UK):** /skrʌb/

## Meanings
1. to rub hard to clean; to cancel; low brushwood or stunted vegetation

## Examples
- She knelt to scrub the stubborn stain from the kitchen floor.

## Synonyms
- scour
- rub
- clean
- wash
- cancel
- abort
- brushwood
- thicket

## Antonyms
- soil
- dirty
- keep
- proceed

## Derived Forms
- scrubber
- scrubby
- scrubbing

## Related Forms
- shrub

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: schrobben

## Etymology
From Middle English 'scrobben', probably from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German 'schrobben' ('to scrub'); the 'brushwood' sense is a variant of 'shrub', of Old English origin.

## AI Etymology
Scrub comes from Middle English 'scrobben', probably from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German 'schrobben' ('to scrub'); the 'brushwood' sense is a variant of 'shrub', of Old English origin. The historical chain includes Middle Dutch schrobben. Older glosses in the chain include "scrobben", "schrobben", "to scrub", and "brushwood", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, scrub is best read as borrowing, yielding an English verb and noun shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a verb and noun, with the sense "to rub hard to clean; to cancel; low brushwood or stunted vegetation". English derivatives include scrubber, scrubby, and scrubbing; related forms include shrub. The result is an English verb and noun whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- Actions & Processes

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