scrub, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

scrub v.

[SE scrub out]

1. to cancel, to wipe out, to forget.

1803		Sporting Mag. Aug. XXII 278/2: He only runs up a bill as long as my arm; / Then for shoes [...] I run up another, / ‘I scrub’d you before – now scrub me my dear brother.’.
1828		W. Scott Journal 22 Mar. (1941) 212: If I were alone, I could scrub it [i.e. a visit to London], but there is no doing that with Anne .
1832		Satirist (London) 6 May 147/2: ‘Come, strike up Dark-lanthern!’ says I, / Ven the old ’un beginned for to scrub.
1916		‘Taffrail Stand By! [ebook] [H]e had horrible thoughts of being scrubbed for the deadly sin of losing touch with the flotilla.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 5: You know them two grouse sheilas we’ve got the meet on with tomorer night? [...] Let’s scrub ’em.
1945		D. Bolster Roll On My Twelve 139: The operation’s been scrubbed.
1958		F. Norman Bang To Rights 11: I’m going to be gone a long time and it’s best we scrub it right now.
1967		E. Shepard Doom Pussy 128: Sir, the mission was scrubbed after we were airborne.
1977		T. Ronan Mighty Men on Horseback 17: It might have meant missing my mob [...] so I scrubbed the whole idea.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 45: Scrub round it: To avoid or disregard a problem.
1992		M. Frayn Now You Know 47: ‘OK, change of plan,’ I tell them. ‘Scrub the cats.’.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 181: scrub 2. To reject, as a player might be scrubbed from the All Blacks. ANZ 1930s.

2. (Aus.) of a lover, to abandon.

1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 169: I’m diced, Mick [...] or scrubbed or wiped, if you prefer ’em.
1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 224: I scrubbed her. Wiped the engagement. Finished with her.

3. (US) to kill.

1986

S. King It (1987) 335: If you’d wanted to scrub him, you woulda pushed him downstairs or something.

4. (US campus) to fail.

1989

P. Munro Sl. U.

5. (US teen) to trip or fall down.

2002

Teen Lingo: The Source for Youth Ministry 🌐 scrub n. [...] 2. To trip or fall down, usually hurting oneself. ‘Did you see Bobby scrub when he was trying to hop that rail?’.

In phrases

scrub along (v.)

to survive with difficulty.

1831		M. Edgeworth letter 29 Mar. in Letters from Eng. (1971) 507: He [...] has run through two large fortunes and is now scrubbing on upon a few thousands [OED].
1872		Shields Dly Gaz. 7 Mar. 1/6: Most [...] knowing of course the weights and measures can scrub along.
1881		Tamworth Herald (Staffs.) 24 Dec. 3/4: Ever since I came here, I’ve had to scrub along on milk and gruel.
1889		W. Davidson Stories of N.Z. Life 48: Dennis O’Brien had scrubbed along for many years, a miserable kind of existence, saving and hoarding, and living on the ‘smell of an oil rag’.
1891		S. Wales Echo 4 May 4/3: ‘Its how to scrub along and git a libbin’ in dis worl’ what’s boderin’ me’.
1901		Merwin & Webster Calumet ‘K’ xi 202: The rest of the road had to scrub along as best it could [DA].
1915		S. Ford Shorty McCabe on the Job 152: He’s managed to keep hold of a little property that brings him in just enough to scrub along on.
1920		Aberdeen Press & Jrnl 15 June 4/2: The Royal Infirmary manages to scrub along but succeeding chairmen are at their wits end [...] raising an income.
1933		Leeds Mercury 4 Oct. 8/1: The firm [...] could do no more than scrub along when it came to the pinch.
1960		Illus. Sporting & Dramatic News 31 Aug. 38/1: Another that manages to scrub along with a rough assortment of hounds.
1998		Stage (London) 20 Aug. 9/6: .

In exclamations

scrub it!

forget it! ignore it! cancel it!

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1027/2: since ca. 1910.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

scrub the kitchen (v.)

see clean up the kitchen under kitchen n.¹

scrub up well (v.)

1. of a person, to manage to look presentable against the odds, i.e. despite being hungover or usu. very scruffy or ugly.

1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 45: Scrub up well: If one scrubs up well one is deemed by one’s peers to have managed to get dressed quite decently and look not half bad after an appalling night on the turps. Also some women are said by males to scrub up well which simply means that they have dress sense.
1993		M. West The Lovers 25: I must say you scrub up well, Cavanagh. I’m impressed.
1999		J. James Guardian 15 July 🌐 You scrub up well for these events and your dress sense is immaculate. Your initial greeting is hugely enthusiastic but after that you lapse into a social coma because you failed to read past page one of the small talk and social skills manual.
2005		P. Morgan in Guardian 20 Nov. 🌐 She is more photogenic in the flesh than she is in photos, she really scrubs up well.
2007		S. Duncan Nice Girls Do 107: ‘Scrubs up well, doesn’t she?’ and everybody laughed, Anna most of all.

2. by ext. of objects or places.

2004		A. Maxted Behaving Like Adults 13: Islington flats, even small dim ones, scrub up well and sell for silly money.
2005		T. Dyckhoff Guardian 27 Aug. 🌐 Lisbon’s [...] cheap and very, very cheerful. Scrubs up well: EU investment hasn’t rid the city of its dusty, nostalgic crustiness.