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Scrub vs Scrubbing - What's the difference?

scrub | scrubbing |

As nouns the difference between scrub and scrubbing

is that scrub is one who labors hard and lives meanly; a mean fellow or scrub can be an instance of scrubbing while scrubbing is an act of cleaning in which something is scrubbed.

As verbs the difference between scrub and scrubbing

is that scrub is 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 while scrubbing is .

As an adjective scrub

is mean; dirty; contemptible; scrubby.

scrub

English

Etymology 1

(en)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Mean; dirty; contemptible; scrubby.
  • * (rfdate)'' (Walpole)
  • How solitary, how scrub, does this town look!
  • * (rfdate), (Jonathan Swift)
  • No little scrub joint shall come on my board.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One who labors hard and lives meanly; a mean fellow.
  • * John Bunyan, A Pilgrim's Promise
  • a sorry scrub
  • * Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield
  • We should go there in as proper a manner possible; nor altogether like the scrubs about us.
  • A worn-out brush.
  • (Ainsworth)
  • One who is incompetent or unable to complete easy tasks.
  • A thicket or jungle, often specified by the name of the prevailing plant; as, oak scrub', palmetto ' scrub , etc.
  • * , chapter=1
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.}}
  • (US, stock breeding) One of the common livestock of a region of no particular breed or not of pure breed, especially when inferior in size, etc. Often used to refer to male animals unsuited for breeding.
  • Vegetation of inferior quality, though sometimes thick and impenetrable, growing in poor soil or in sand; also, brush.
  • One not on the first team of players, a substitute.
  • Derived terms
    * scrubbable * scrub game * scrub race
    Derived terms
    * scrub bird * scrub oak * scrub robin

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl)

    Verb

    (scrubb)
  • 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.
  • To rub anything hard, especially with a wet brush; to scour;
  • (figuratively) To be diligent and penurious; as, to scrub hard for a living.
  • To call off a scheduled event; to cancel.
  • Engineers had to scrub the satellite launch due to bad weather.
  • (databases) To eliminate or to correct data from a set of records to bring it inline with other similar datasets
  • The street segment data from the National Post Office will need to be scrubbed before it can be integrated into our system.
  • (audio) To move a recording tape back and forth with a scrubbing-like motion to produce a scratching sound, or to do so by a similar use of a control on an editing system.
  • (audio, video) To maneuver the play position on a media editing system by using a scroll bar.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • An instance of scrubbing.
  • A cancellation.
  • A worn-out brush.
  • One who scrubs.
  • (medicine, in the plural) Clothing worn while performing surgery.
  • An exfoliant for the body.
  • Anagrams

    *

    scrubbing

    English

    Verb

    (head)
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • An act of cleaning in which something is scrubbed.