Scrub /(skrŭb)/

Scrub

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Scrubbed; p. pr. & vb. n. Scrubbing

  1. 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.

Scrub

v. i.
  1. To rub anything hard, especially with a wet brush; to scour; hence, to be diligent and penurious; as, to scrub hard for a living.

Scrub

n.
  1. One who labors hard and lives meanly; a mean fellow.
    We should go there in as proper a manner as possible; nor altogether like the scrubs about us.
  2. Something small and mean.
  3. A worn-out brush.
  4. A thicket or jungle, often specified by the name of the prevailing plant; as, oak scrub, palmetto scrub, etc.
  5. One of the common live stock of a region of no particular breed or not of pure breed, esp. when inferior in size, etc. (Stock Breeding) [U.S.]
  6. Vegetation of inferior quality, though sometimes thick and impenetrable, growing in poor soil or in sand; also, brush; -- called also scrub brush. See Brush, above. [Australia & South Africa]
  7. A low, straggling tree of inferior quality. (Forestry)

Phrases & Compounds
Scrub bird
an Australian passerine bird of the family Atrichornithidae, as Atrichia clamosa; -- called also brush bird.
Scrub oak
the popular name of several dwarfish species of oak. The scrub oak of New England and the Middle States is Quercus ilicifolia, a scraggy shrub; that of the Southern States is a small tree (Quercus Catesbaei); that of the Rocky Mountain region is Quercus undulata, var. Gambelii.
Scrub robin
an Australian singing bird of the genus Drymodes.

Scrub

a.
  1. Mean; dirty; contemptible; scrubby.
    How solitary, how scrub, does this town look!
    No little scrub joint shall come on my board.

Phrases & Compounds
Scrub game
a game, as of ball, by unpracticed players.
Scrub race
a race between scrubs, or between untrained animals or contestants.