Cognate with Saterland Frisian rubje, nds-de rubben, Low German rubblig, Dutch robben, rubben, Danish rubbe, Icelandic - and Norwegian - rubba.

More at reave.

• (RP, America) IPA: /ɹʌb/, enPR: rŭb
• (Northern England, Ireland) IPA: /ɹʊb/

rub (plural rubs)

1. An act of rubbing.

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

2. A difficulty or problem.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene i]:

     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

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[[Episode 16]]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC ↗:

     […] 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.

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

   1. A mixture of spices applied to meat before it is barbecued.
6. (UK, naval slang) A loan.

• (a difficulty or problem) hitch, hiccup, catch, kink, glitch, snag

• French: friction
• Italian: strofinamento
• Portuguese: fricção
• Spanish: frotación, frotamiento, frote

• French: hic
• Russian: загво́здка

• Russian: растира́ние

rub (rubs, present participle rubbing; simple past and past participle rubbed)

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.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:

     […] Walden rubbed his hands together and smiled contentedly.

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

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗:

     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

   • a. 1716, Robert South, Man Created in God's Image:

     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.
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene ii]:

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

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

• French: frotter
• German: reiben
• Italian: strofinare, fregare
• Portuguese: esfregar
• Russian: тере́ть
• Spanish: frotar

• French: frotter
• German: reiben, abreiben
• Spanish: frotar

• German: sich abreiben, sich abscheuern, sich ablaufen
• Portuguese: raspado

• German: einreiben

• French: frotter, polir
• German: polieren, aufpolieren, putzen

rub (plural rubs)

1. (protein) Any of a group of proteins similar to ubiquitin
2. Initialism of rich urban biker