abrade
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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to wear off or down by scraping or rubbing.
-
to scrape off.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of abrade
1670–80; < Latin abrādere, equivalent to ab- ab- + rādere to scrape
Explanation
When you abrade something, you scrub it vigorously. To clean your dirty bathtub well, you'll have to abrade it with a scrub brush and powdered bleach. When you scour something so vigorously that you remove dirt, grime, or even the surface of the thing you're scrubbing, you abrade it. You might need to abrade your fingers with a nail brush to get them clean after working on your oily car engine all afternoon. The word abrade is related to abrasion — a scrape on the skin — and both words come from the Latin root abradere, which means "to scrape off."
Vocabulary lists containing abrade
The Alchemist
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Ready Player One
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On the Origin of Species
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But even without rationing, the cost of replacement power would probably exceed the combined cash flow of the country's distribution utilities, said Paulo Pedro, executive president of Abrade, Brazil's large power users association.
From Reuters • Mar. 25, 2014
Abrade, ab-rād′, v.t. to scrape or rub off: to wear down by friction.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
