rub

noun

1. An act of rubbing.

   “Give that lamp a good rub and see if any genies come out.”

2. A difficulty or problem.

   “To die, to sleep— / To sleep—perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub! / For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, / When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, / Must give us pause”

   “[…] the propriety of the cabman's shelter, as it was called, hardly a stonesthrow away near Butt bridge where they might hit upon some drinkables in the shape of a milk and soda or a mineral. But how to get there was the rub.”

   “'My dear Devereux, I say, you mustn't talk in that wild way. You—you talk like a ruined man!' 'And I so comfortable!' 'Why, to be sure, Dick, you have had some little rubs, and, maybe, your follies and your vexations; but, hang it, you are young; you can't get experience—at least, so I've found it—without paying for it. […]'”

3. (archaic)A quip or sarcastic remark.
4. In the game of crown green bowls, any obstacle by which a bowl is diverted from its normal course.
5. Any substance designed to be applied by rubbing.

   “a heat rub intended for muscular strains”

6. Any substance designed to be applied by rubbing.
7. (UK, slang)A loan.
8. Any of a group of proteins similar to ubiquitin
9. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of rich urban biker.

verb

1. (transitive)To move (one object) while maintaining contact with another object over some area, with pressure and friction.

   “I rubbed the cloth over the glass.”

   “The cat rubbed itself against my leg.”

   “I rubbed my hands together for warmth.”

   “I couldn't rub the stain from the tablecloth.”

   “You ſhould rub your Teeth and whole Mouth and Gums, the Pallate and Tongue, with a clean courſe cloth, rubbing off the ſlime which groweth upon them in the night.”

2. (intransitive)To be rubbed against something.

   “My shoes are beginning to rub.”

3. (transitive)To spread a substance thinly over; to smear.

   “meat rubbed with spices before barbecuing”

   “The smoothed plank, […] / New rubbed with balm.”

4. (dated)To move or pass with difficulty.

   “to rub through woods, as huntsmen”

5. To scour; to burnish; to polish; to brighten; to cleanse; often with up or over.

   “to rub up silver”

   “The whole business of our redemption is, in short, only to rub over the defaced copy of the creation”

6. To hinder; to cross; to thwart.

   “'Tis the duke's pleasure, / Whose disposition, all the world well knows, / Will not be rubbed nor stopped.”

7. (transitive)To touch the jack with the bowl.