I cannot brush aside the problem by a facile reference to reincarnation.
He seemed to brush aside the little defenses and subterfuges.
"Oh—my work," he exclaimed, as if to brush aside an ill-timed pleasantry.
They cannot brush aside a cobweb, and are stopped by an insect's wing.
This may be naive, as to the past and the future; but it is a naivete we cannot brush aside.
Mrs. Burwell laid her brush aside and crossed the room to where he stood.
He brushes it aside as the elephant might brush aside the ineffective gadfly.
He waved his white hands as if to brush aside all opposition.
She recognised no embarrassments, and Isabel, considering this fact, determined for the fiftieth time to brush aside her own.
It was cruel of him, in that insufferably self-assured tone, to brush aside my wishes.
"dust-sweeper, a brush for sweeping," late 14c., also, c.1400, "brushwood, brushes;" from Old French broisse (Modern French brosse) "a brush" (13c.), perhaps from Vulgar Latin *bruscia "a bunch of new shoots" (used to sweep away dust), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *bruskaz "underbrush."
"shrubbery," early 14c., from Anglo-French bruce "brushwood," Old North French broche, Old French broce "bush, thicket, undergrowth" (12c., Modern French brosse), from Gallo-Romance *brocia, perhaps from *brucus "heather," or possibly from the same source as brush (n.1).
late 15c., "to clean or rub (clothing) with a brush," also (mid-15c.) "to beat with a brush," from brush (n.1). Related: Brushed; brushing. To brush off someone or something, "rebuff, dismiss," is from 1941.
"move briskly" especially past or against something or someone, 1670s, from earlier sense (c.1400) "to hasten, rush," probably from brush (n.2), on the notion of a horse, etc., passing through dense undergrowth (cf. Old French brosser "travel (through woods)," and Middle English noun brush "charge, onslaught, encounter," mid-14c.), but brush (n.1) probably has contributed something to it as well. Related: Brushed; brushing.
noun
