RUB DOWN Definition & Meaning

View synonyms for

rub down

verb

to dry or clean (a horse, athlete, oneself, etc) vigorously, esp after exercise
to make or become smooth by rubbing
tr to prepare (a surface) for painting by rubbing it with sandpaper

noun

the act of rubbing down
the Hong Kong term for dressing-down

Discover More

Idioms and Phrases

Briskly rub the body, as in a massage. For example, The trainer rubs down marathon runners , or That horse needs rubbing down . This expression was first used (and still is) for rubbing away dust and sweat from a horse. [Late 1600s]

Discover More

Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

From the very beginning, they were, she writes, “rubbing down the hatches and the gunwales with sandpaper, our hands becoming dry and coarse themselves. It was horrible work.”

From

This meant rubbing down a sweating horse after it had raced or had a workout.

From

She describes rubbing down the tenderloin of a mule deer with homemade white bean and wild rose miso, and then hanging it above an open fire.

From

Then: “Can you feel when I rub down your arm?”

From

The women are rubbed down into featureless nubs, the men deflated caricatures — popped balloons.

From

Related �y��vlogs

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Browse