Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(W.I.) to serve a prison sentence.

1995

Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 45: Rub a sentence to do time: u. Tom a rub a sentence/Tom is doing time.

see under belly n.

see separate entries .

1. to emphasize, often with malicious pleasure; thus (UK Und.) rub it in well, to give (true or false) evidence that will certainly lead to a conviction.

1870		Daily News 26 May n.p.: ‘Metropolitan Police.’ Rubbing it in well is a well-known phrase amongst the doubtful portion of the constabulary [F&H].
1879		H. James Bundle of Letters No. IV n.p.: She is forever throwing Boston up at me; I can’t get rid of Boston. The other one rubs it into me, too [F&H].
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 July 14/3: We notice that the Sydney D.T. ‘rubbed it into’ the Yankee wrestler, M’Caffrey, pretty roughly over the wrestling-match at Foley’s rooms on Saturday night, but, unless on the principle of ‘kick him, he’s got no friends,’ we did not exactly see where the blackguarding came in.
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 50: Stop it, Miller. Do n’t go to rubbin’ it in.
1905		A. Binstead Mop Fair 85: Oh, I rubbed it into them.
1919		Marvel 3 Mar. 6: I don’t want to rub it in.
1925		Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 39: I call it rubbing the thing in to expect me to spend my afternoons gazing into the ugly face of a little brat.
1932		(con. 1917–19) Dos Passos Nineteen Nineteen in USA (1966) 583: Go ahead, rub it in.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 177: Not wanting to rub it in but feeling that they should be fully briefed.
1962		R. Serling ‘The Night of the Meek’ in New Stories from the Twilight Zone 74: ‘Don’t rub it in,’ she said tersely.

2. (US) to treat harshly.

1918

D.G. Rowse Doughboy Dope 45: And believe me, bo, they didn’t rub it into yuh. Fierce.

to masturbate.

1979

Frank Zappa ‘Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow’ [live perf. lyrics] Nanook rubs it and he loves it.

1. see separate entries .

2. see also rub out v.

see separate entries .

(Aus.) to masturbate.

1999

G. Seal Lingo 126: jerkin the gherkin; rub the grub; tug the slug [...] are all descriptions of male masturbation.

(UK Und.) to send to prison.

a.1674		‘Of the Budge’ Head Canting Academy (1674) 11: But if the cully nap us, /An the lurries from us take, / O then they rub us to the Whitt / And it is hardly worth a make.
1676		A Newgate ex-prisoner A Warning for House-Keepers 5: We bite the Culley of his cole / But we are rubbed unto the Whitt.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Rubs us to the Whit, sends us to Newgate.
1724		‘John Sheppard’s Last Epistle’ in Dly Jrnl (London) 16 Nov. 1: She snaffled his Main, Poll and T—l, / For which She was rubb’d to the Witt, Sir.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Don’t rub us to the whit; don’t send us to Newgate. (cant).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		‘Hundred Stretches Hence’ in Matsell Vocabulum 124: Some rubbed to whit had napped a winder, / And some were scragged and took a blinder.

see separate entries.