rub out en · VERB
Meanings
-
(transitive) To delete or erase or remove (something) by rubbing, especially with a rubber (eraser).
The teacher wanted to rub out the chalk marks on the blackboard.
-
(obsolete) To get by; to live.
The first will understand but little of them, the latter over much; they might perhaps live and rub out in the middle region.
1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 54, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
-
(slang, transitive) To kill, especially to murder.
'Mr Grimaldi,' fills in Smoke, 'what I believe Fay has too much tact to spit out and say is this: the Rey woman might be imagining we rubbed out Dr Sixsmith.'
2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Sceptre (Hodder and Stoughton), →ISBN:It was just a week to the day since Mr. Martin had decided to rub out Mrs. Ulgine Barrows.
1942, James Thurber, The Catbird Seat:
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rub, out.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| rubbing out | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| rubbed out | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| rubbed out | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| rubs out | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic |
Coordinates
Deriveds
Synonyms
dead · bring down · take down · smash · shut up · do · stiff · whack · make away with · finish · demolish · rub out · scupper · ex · send to the great beyond · slay · waste · eliminate · wipe out · scuttle · exterminate · punch someone's ticket · smite · slime out · bag · terminate with extreme prejudice · neutralize · blight · pick off · take out · croak · baptize · take care of · cack · polish off · wet · send to hell · send to the grave · wreck · snuff · crush · top · scotch · bump off · merc · pop off · dust · put six feet under · top off · stop someone's clock · put someone out of their misery · send to the next life · finish off · put to sleep · put down · ravage · off · end · dash · send to eternity · take · mortify · terminate · knock off · do in · dispose of · bury · destroy · wax · ruin · bereave of life · grease · flatten · eradicate · dispatch · pay off · squash · compromised to a permanent end · lay waste to · torpedo · annihilate · obliterate · put an end to · deactivate · slaughter
Translations (18)
fr effacer (delete or erase by rubbing) · pl sprzątać (kill) · fi pyyhkiä (delete or erase by rubbing) · de ausradieren (delete or erase by rubbing) · nl wegvegen (delete or erase by rubbing) · ota قازیمق (delete or erase by rubbing) · ota قازیمق (kill) · ml മായ്ക്കുക (delete or erase by rubbing) · el σβήνω (kill) · de wegwischen (delete or erase by rubbing) · nl wegvagen (delete or erase by rubbing) · el σβήνω (delete or erase by rubbing) · io efacar (delete or erase by rubbing) · pl wymazać (delete or erase by rubbing) · fi kumittaa (delete or erase by rubbing) · pl sprzątnąć (kill) · pl wymazywać (delete or erase by rubbing) · nl uitvagen (delete or erase by rubbing)