Scrub Meaning
/skɹʌb/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjMean; dirty; contemptible; scrubby.
nounA thicket or jungle, often specified by the name of the prevailing plant.
Sentence Examples
I couldn't scrub the stain out.
Tom asked Mary to scrub the toilet.
Don't use your bare hands to scrub the floor.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She had to ____ the dirty pot with a sponge to remove the burnt food.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She had to ____ the bathroom tiles with a stiff brush to remove the mold.
Word Origin & History
Late Middle English in the sense of "stunted tree," a variant of shrub, possibly under Old Norse influence.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"How solitary, how scrub, does this town look!"
— 1743, Horace Walpole, letter to Sir Horace Mann:
"No little scrub joint shall come on my board."
— 1729, Jonathan Swift, The Grand Question Debated of Hamilton's Bawn:
"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."
— 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
"A sorry scrub, said Mr. High-mind."
— 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress:
"We should go there in as proper a manner possible; nor altogether like the scrubs about us."
— 1766, Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She had to ____ the dirty pot with a sponge to remove the burnt food.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She had to ____ the bathroom tiles with a stiff brush to remove the mold.