brush

noun

1. 1

   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.

2. 2

   The act of brushing something.

   She gave her hair a quick brush.

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

3. 3

   A piece of conductive material, usually carbon, serving to maintain electrical contact between the stationary and rotating parts of a machine.

4. 4

   A brush-like electrical discharge of sparks.

   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.

5. 5

   Wild vegetation, generally larger than grass but smaller than trees. See shrubland.

   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.

   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.

6. 6

   A short, possibly recurrent encounter or experience.

   brush with death

   He has had brushes with communism from time to time.

   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.

   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.

7. 7

   The furry tail of an animal, especially of a fox.

   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.

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

8. 8

   A tuft of hair on the mandibles.

9. 9

   archaicA 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.

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

10. 10

    An instrument, resembling a brush, used to produce a soft sound from drums or cymbals.

11. 11

    An on-screen tool for "painting" a particular colour or texture.

    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[…].

12. 12

    A set of defined design and parameters that produce drawn strokes of a certain texture and quality.

    to download brushes for Photoshop

13. 13

    In 3D video games, a convex polyhedron, especially one that defines structure of the play area.

14. 14

    slangThe floorperson of a poker room, usually in a casino.

15. 15

    Evergreen boughs, especially balsam, locally cut and baled for export, usually for use in making wreaths.

verb

1. 1

   To clean with a brush.

   Brush your teeth.

2. 2

   To untangle or arrange with a brush.

   Brush your hair.

3. 3

   To apply with a brush.

   I am brushing the paint onto the walls.

4. 4

   To remove with a sweeping motion.

   She brushed the flour off my clothes.

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

5. 5

   To touch with a sweeping motion, or lightly in passing.

   Her scarf brushed his skin.

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

   Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings.

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

6. 6

   To clean one's teeth by brushing them.

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

Forms

plural

brushes

past tense

brushed

past participle

brushed

present participle

brushing

third person singular

brushes