rub out
Britishverb
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to remove or be removed with a rubber
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slang to murder
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Australian rules football to suspend (a player)
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Obliterate or erase by, or as if by, rubbing. For example, Bill was so busy rubbing out the old markings that he forgot to put in new ones . [Mid-1600s]
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Murder, kill, as in They threatened to rub him out if he didn't pay up . [ Slang ; mid-1800s]
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.
They’re the stains you can’t rub out, the holes around the collar, the crease marks forever etched into fabric.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 12, 2024
He fidgets endlessly with his hands as if trying to rub out the scars.
From BBC • Jul. 25, 2023
After the war, they saw no need to rub out their past.
From Reuters • Oct. 26, 2022
Then came Captain America, alongside an interest in American history, which is ill-served by Captain America books because they rub out all the bad stuff; then Iron Man.
From The Guardian • Nov. 10, 2018
Neel didn’t bother to rub out their footprints as they climbed the lower half of the trail that sloped up the bank.
From "Tiger Boy" by Mitali Perkins
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.
