rubbing
Americannoun
-
rubbings
plural
-
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:
To be clear, I’m not sitting here rubbing my hands with glee, thinking I’m immune to dementia or a heart attack and I’ll stay young forever.
From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2026
They all got to appear on a hugely popular TV show, rubbing shoulders with other stars and gaining new fans along the way.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
“It was heartbreaking,” he said, rubbing his bald head with his eyes closed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026
She fancies it a joke to get the townspeople off her back, rubbing their traditions back in their faces.
From Salon ● Oct. 26, 2026
Then he scraped off the hairs -inexpertly, making several holes -and softened the hide by rubbing it with mashed deer brain.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
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
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
This week, participants will learn about Sari Dienes, who frequently used ink and webril, a cotton-based material used in the medical industry, to make rubbings of Manhattan’s subway grates, pavement cracks and maintenance hole covers.
From New York Times ● Mar. 13, 2021
It’s a sentiment Judy summed up in a poem she wrote to accompany her “Group” rubbings:
From Washington Post ● Jan. 22, 2020
But Gogol is silent, his rubbings rolled up carefully like parchment in his lap.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
