brush v.1
1. (UK Und.) to rush off, to run away; as excl. go away! off with you!
![]() | Canting Academy (2nd edn) brush to fly. As the Cully is brush’d or rub’d, that is, He is march’t off or broke. | |
![]() | Triumph of Wit (1707) 194: The Cully is brushed. [The Fellow is rubbed off or broken]. | |
![]() | Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Brush c. to Fly or Run away. The Cully is Brusht or Rub’d, c. the Fellow is march’d off, or Brok. | |
![]() | Rival Fools I i: Ahum! hum! Brush off, Brush off, this Fellow’s bewitch’d. | |
![]() | Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 203: Brush, to fly or run away. The Cully is brushed or rubbed, i.e., the fellow is marched off, or broke. | |
![]() | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. | |
![]() | Canting Academy, or the Pedlar’s-French Dict. 116: To go away Brush or Lope. | |
![]() | Scoundrel’s Dict. 17: To fly or run away – Brush off. | |
![]() | No One’s Enemy But His Own II i: ‘Hold your tongue, you rascal —do as I bid you’ and so off he brushed, to the tune of an old song. | |
![]() | The Bankrupt I i: But I must brush off, for here comes my Lady. | |
, , | ![]() | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: To brush, to run away. Let us buy a brush and lope, let us get away, or off. |
![]() | Jew Swindler n.p.: I begin to think we had better brush from this quarter. | |
![]() | Better Late than Never 40: If I can but get safe into the street, little Pallet will soon brush off. | |
![]() | Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) II 74: The old lady brushed off, to go and usher him in. | (trans.)|
![]() | All at Coventry II ii: All up with me here – cut – down – jockied – must brush. – Yes, I’ll leave this cursed Coventry. | |
![]() | Real Life in London I 127: They are sure to nab my gentleman before he gets much farther, so let us brush on. [Ibid.] II 58: ‘What is meant by a bolter?’ ‘He is one,’ replied Dashall, ‘who, having obtained the privilege of a Day Rule, brushes off, and leaves his bondsmen, or the Marshal, to pay his debt.’. | |
![]() | Inside Out; or, An Interior View of the N.-Y. State Prison 225: But, his expected companion had ‘brushed the scene’ without him. | |
![]() | ‘Take a Sight’ in Rummy Cove’s Delight in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 104: So brush, Master Bobby, it will not do. | |
![]() | ‘Jack of Horslydown’ in Flash Casket 59: She’s o’er the water and brush’d off / Vith Jack o Horslydown. | |
![]() | Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 208: One of the drummers, and one Sergeant Matcham, / Had ‘brushed with the dibs’. | ‘The Dead Drummer’ in|
![]() | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 12: BRUSH, or brush-off, to run away, or to move on Old cant. | |
![]() | (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor II 350/2: The man ‘brushed’ (to use their expression) or rather walked off. | |
![]() | Annals of the Road 81: ‘Now, gentlemen, you brush in and I will brush on’. | |
![]() | Sharping London 34: Brush, to make off. | |
![]() | Aus. Sl. Dict. 12: Brush Off, to move on quickly. | |
![]() | Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 29: BRUSHER: to abscond, to run away, to avoid. | |
![]() | Torchy 2: Brush by, you three-dollar pikers, and give a salaried man a show! | |
![]() | Und. Speaks. | |
![]() | N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 17 Oct. 10: When we do get back to the ‘Apple,’ Muds will have brushed. |
2. (UK Und.) to rush sway with stolen goods.
![]() | New Cheats of London Exposed 27: While the person is gone over, the things are brushed, that is, carried off . |
3. (Aus.) to cancel.
![]() | Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 213: ‘You going to the Sheaf tonight Woz?’ [...] ‘No, I think I’ll brush it’. | |
![]() | Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] I’m taking her down for an X-ray first thing in the morning, so the paddle’s brushed. | |
![]() | Mystery Bay Blues 14: Ray suggested they brush the bogie hole and just fartarse around in front of the boat sheds. |
In phrases
to leave in a hurry.
![]() | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
![]() | Lex. Balatronicum. | |
![]() | Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
![]() | 16C(con. ) Knights of the Pale 71: Come, brush and lope! |