Etymology

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#BRUSHCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#BRUSH brusshe, from Old FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Old French#BRUSH broisse (Modern French brosse), from Vulgar LatinCategory:English terms derived from Vulgar Latin#BRUSH *brustia, from FrankishCategory:English terms derived from Frankish#BRUSH *bursti, from Proto-GermanicCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Germanic#BRUSH *burstiz (“bristle”), or also Vulgar LatinCategory:English terms derived from Vulgar Latin#BRUSH *bruscia, from Proto-GermanicCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Germanic#BRUSH *bruskaz (“tuft, thicket, underbrush”), which could be from Proto-Indo-EuropeanCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European#BRUSH *bʰrusgo-.^[1]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: brŭsh, IPA^(key): /bɹʌʃ/Category:English 1-syllable words#BRUSHCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BRUSH
• (dialectal, obsolete) enPR: brĕsh, IPA^(key): /bɹɛʃ/Category:English 1-syllable words#BRUSHCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BRUSH^[2]

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#BRUSH
• Rhymes: -ʌʃCategory:Rhymes:English/ʌʃ#BRUSHCategory:Rhymes:English/ʌʃ/1 syllable#BRUSH

Noun

brush (countable and uncountable, plural brushes)Category:English lemmas#BRUSHCategory:English nouns#BRUSHCategory:English uncountable nouns#BRUSHCategory:English countable nouns#BRUSHCategory:English countable nouns#BRUSHCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#BRUSHCategory:Pages with entries#BRUSHCategory:Pages with 3 entries#BRUSH

2. An implement consisting of multiple more or less flexible bristles or other filaments attached to a handle, used for any of various purposes including cleaning, painting, and arranging hair.
3. The act of brushing something.

   She gave her hair a quick brush.Category:English terms with usage examples#BRUSH

   • c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 92:

     as leaves
     Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush
     Fell from their boughs

     Category:English terms with quotations#BRUSH

4. A piece of conductive material, usually carbon, serving to maintain electrical contact between the stationary and rotating parts of a machine.
5. A brush-like electrical discharge of sparks.

   Synonym: corposant

   • 2001, Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood:

     If there was a sharp point nearby, electricity would stream from it in a luminous brush, a little corposant, and one could blow out candles with the outstreaming “electric wind,” or even get this to turn a little rotor on its pivot.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BRUSH

7. (uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#BRUSH) Wild vegetation, generally larger than grass but smaller than trees. See shrubland.
   • 1906, Jack London, Before Adam, chapter 12:

     We broke away toward the north, the tribe howling on our track. Across the open spaces we gained, and in the brush they caught up with us, and more than once it was nip and tuck.

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion:

     One typical Grecian kiln engorged one thousand muleloads of juniper wood in a single burn. Fifty such kilns would devour six thousand metric tons of trees and brush annually.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BRUSH

8. A short, possibly recurrent encounter or experience.

   brush with deathCategory:English terms with collocations#BRUSH

   He has had brushes with communism from time to time.Category:English terms with usage examples#BRUSH

   • 2013 September 13, Russell Brand, “Russell Brand and the GQ awards: 'It's amazing how absurd it seems'”, in The Guardian:

     The usual visual grammar was in place – a carpet in the street, people in paddocks awaiting a brush with something glamorous, blokes with earpieces, birds in frocks of colliding colours that if sighted in nature would indicate the presence of poison.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BRUSH

   • 2025 April 21, Peter Stanford, “Pope Francis obituary”, in The Guardian‎:

     He fell seriously ill at 21 with pneumonia and doctors feared for his life. Three cysts were found on his right lung and part of it was removed in a brutal operation. The brush with death strengthened his determination to become a priest and he entered a Jesuit seminary soon afterwards.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BRUSH

9. The furry tail of an animal, especially of a fox.
   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:

     They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BRUSH

   • 1988, “Mayhem Maybe”, in Ian Anderson (music), 20 Years of Jethro Tull, performed by Jethro Tull:

     We terrified the mare and foal;
     The fox stood still and far too bold -
     So we strung him up, brush neatly folded
     Mayhem, maybe.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BRUSH

10. (zoologyCategory:en:Zoology#BRUSH) A tuft of hair on the mandibles.
11. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#BRUSH) A short contest, or trial, of speed.
    • 1860, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage (originally published in Cornhill Magazine

      Mark and Lord Lufton had been boys together, and his lordship knew that Mark in his heart would enjoy a brush across the country quite as well as he himself.

    • 1950, Think, volumes 16-17, page 34:

      […] got into a brush with a fast British cutter as they approached Cowes […]

      Category:English terms with quotations#BRUSH

      Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
12. (musicCategory:en:Music#BRUSH) An instrument, resembling a brush, used to produce a soft sound from drums or cymbals.
13. (computer graphicsCategory:en:Computer graphics#BRUSH) An on-screen tool for "painting" a particular colour or texture.
    • 2007, Lee Lanier, Maya Professional Tips and Techniques, page 12:

      Your bitmap image appears along the painted stroke. If you'd like to permanently create a custom sprite brush, it's fairly easy to adapt an existing MEL file […].

      Category:English terms with quotations#BRUSH

      Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
14. (computer graphicsCategory:en:Computer graphics#BRUSH) A set of defined design and parameters that produce drawn strokes of a certain texture and quality.

    Coordinate term: texture

    to download brushes for PhotoshopCategory:English terms with collocations#BRUSH

15. (video gamesCategory:en:Video games#BRUSH) In 3D video games, a convex polyhedron, especially one that defines structure of the play area.
16. (pokerCategory:en:Poker#BRUSH, slangCategory:English slang#BRUSH) The floorperson of a poker room, usually in a casino.
17. (North WisconsinCategory:Wisconsin English#BRUSH, uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#BRUSH) Evergreen boughs, especially balsam, locally cut and baled for export, usually for use in making wreaths.

Verb

brush (third-person singular simple present brushes, present participle brushing, simple past and past participle brushed)Category:English lemmas#BRUSHCategory:English verbs#BRUSHCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#BRUSHCategory:Pages with entries#BRUSHCategory:Pages with 3 entries#BRUSH

1. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#BRUSH) To clean with a brush.

   Brush your teeth.Category:English terms with usage examples#BRUSH

2. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#BRUSH) To untangle or arrange with a brush.

   Brush your hair.Category:English terms with usage examples#BRUSH

3. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#BRUSH) To apply with a brush.

   I am brushing the paint onto the walls.Category:English terms with usage examples#BRUSH

4. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#BRUSH) To remove with a sweeping motion.

   She brushed the flour off my clothes.Category:English terms with usage examples#BRUSH

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     Caliban: As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd / With raven's feather from unwholesome fen / Drop on you both! […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#BRUSH

5. (ambitransitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#BRUSHCategory:English intransitive verbs#BRUSH) To touch with a sweeping motion, or lightly in passing.

   Her scarf brushed his skin.Category:English terms with usage examples#BRUSH

   • 1600, [Torquato Tasso], “(please specify |book=1 to 20)”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC:

     Some spread their sails, some with strong oars sweep / The waters smooth, and brush the buxom wave.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BRUSH

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BRUSH

   • 1990 October 28, Paul Simon, “Further to Fly”, in The Rhythm of the Saints, Warner Bros.:

     Maybe you will find a love that you discover accidentally, who falls against you gently as a pickpocket brushes your thigh.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BRUSH

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
6. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#BRUSH) To clean one's teeth by brushing them.
   • 2000, USA Today, volume 129, numbers 2662-2673, page 92:

     Of course, Halloween does not have to be completely treatless. Plain chocolate candy is okay, provided you remember to brush afterwards.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BRUSH

See also

• broom
• comb

References

Further reading

• brush on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• brush (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Shrub, bruhs, burhs, shrub

Noun

brushCategory:Middle English alternative forms#BRUSHCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#BRUSHCategory:Pages with entries#BRUSHCategory:Pages with 3 entries#BRUSH

1. alternative form of broche

Alternative forms

• brosh
• broshan
• brushan

Noun

brushCategory:Swedish lemmas#BRUSHCategory:Swedish nouns#BRUSHCategory:Swedish entries with incorrect language header#BRUSHCategory:Pages with entries#BRUSHCategory:Pages with 3 entries#BRUSH

1. (slangCategory:Swedish slang#BRUSH) bro (as a term of address)

   Synonym: bror

   Bra jobbat, brush!

   Good work, bro!

   Category:Swedish terms with usage examples#BRUSH

References

• Slangopedia