rub out
Verb
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Verb
rub out
- (transitive) To delete or erase or remove (something) by rubbing.
- The teacher wanted to rub out the chalk marks on the blackboard.
- (obsolete) To get by; to live.
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 54, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book I, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821 ↗:
- The first will understand but little of them, the latter over much; they might perhaps live and rub out in the middle region.
- (transitive, criminal slang) To kill, especially to murder.
- 1942, James Thurber, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140212230022/http://jameshilston.com/pages/reading/catbird_seat.htm The Catbird Seat]:
- It was just a week to the day since Mr. Martin had decided to rub out Mrs. Ulgine Barrows.
- 1942, James Thurber, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140212230022/http://jameshilston.com/pages/reading/catbird_seat.htm The Catbird Seat]:
- French: effacer
- German: ausradieren, wegwischen
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002