- present participle of rub.
rubbing
Americannoun
-
an act or action of a person or thing that rubs.
-
an impression of an incised or sculptured surface made by laying paper over it and rubbing with heelball, graphite, or a similar substance until the image appears.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of rubbing
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at rub, -ing 1
Vocabulary lists containing rubbing
Visual Arts - Introductory
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Visual Arts - High School
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Visual Arts - Middle School
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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.
See Examples For:
It may even put your digital self on the field and make you part of the competition, rubbing virtual shoulders with your favorite players.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosures, released Tuesday by the U.S. government, are rubbing salt in their wounds.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026
Officials said that several children outside in a patio area were roasting marshmallows on a device called Flikr Fire, a tabletop fireplace kit that uses rubbing alcohol for fuel and was recalled in 2024.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
One recent 75-degree afternoon, sitting on the front stoop of the rowhouse where she lives with her dad, Burton was rubbing her hands together vigorously, as if it were cold out.
From Salon ● Apr. 29, 2026
“It’s homework,” he muttered, rubbing stubborn sleep out of his eyes.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
Similarly, a study published in May in the journal Communications Biology found that elephants form complex "sentences" through their various rumbles, ear flags, trunk rubbings and other actions.
From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2024
Macie and his resident partner, Sophie Lynn Morris, also made Måla modeling dough casts of the fissures found on display furniture and crayon rubbings off the splintering cement floor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2023
Rather, in the course of intensive therapy, such memories emerge like gravestone rubbings.
From New York Times ● Jul. 20, 2021
In 2016 graphic designer Marina Willer created a booklet of neon rubbings; manhole colouring books are available for people seeking mindfulness; and a Shoreditch company offers framed prints of rubbings for £80.
From BBC ● May 14, 2021
Even when I got used to that gray, I would only see peaks as if shaded in pencil, rocks like charcoal rubbings, everything so murky.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
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.
