brush

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“
However, it did take practice to get a really perfect application, as the brush is a little over-sized.

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Definitions (74)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (21)

  1. noun A device consisting of bristles fastened into a handle, used in scrubbing, polishing, or painting.
  2. noun The act of using this device.
  3. noun A light touch in passing; a graze.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (35)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (50)

  • Overlooking this brush was an antenna, orienting unerringly on the party; Bink had never gotten close enough to one of these things to discover exactly what it was, and did not propose to start now. —  The Source of Magic
  • This was a fun classing painting dogs in Chinese brush. —  The EDM SuperBlog
  • Behind the brush was a dilapidated fence with some slats missing. —  McGeheeZone.com
  • We found that the number of chains forming the brush was the major quantity which governed the dynamics of a probe chain, while the length of the chains in the brush also influenced the diffusivity of the probe chain. —  CiteULike: Everyone's library
  • This brush is an absolute gem and I cannot recommend it enough.
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

bush ·  grass ·  stick ·  cloth ·  branch ·  knife ·  vegetation ·  clothe ·  twig ·  sheet ·  wire ·  patch

Used in the same contextWord Family

brush:   brushes ·  brushed ·  brushing
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English brusshe, from Old French brosse, brushwood, brush; see brush2.
  2. Middle English brusshe, from Old French brosse, brushwood, from Vulgar Latin *bruscia, perhaps from Latin bruscum, knot on a maple.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also brushe, brusche; from Middle English brusshe, brusche, from Old French broche, broce, broisse, brosse, a bush, a bushy place, brushwood, thicket, = Provencal brossa = Spanish broza, brushwood, thicket, rubbish of leaves and bark, = Middle Latin bruscia, a thicket (cf. Middle Latin bruscale, Old French brousaille, later Middle English bruschalle, a thicket), apparently confused with bruscus (later Italian Spanish Portuguese brusco, French brusc, later G. brüsch, butcher's broom, knee-holly; cf. Italian brusca, “ling or heath to make brushes or broomes with” (Florio), now a horse-brush), also ruscus, variant of Latin ruscum, rustum, butcher's broom; hence, as a particular sense of the same word (from the use of small bushy plants, as heath, for the purpose), a brush, Middle English brusshe, brusche, from Old French brouesse, broisse, brosse, French brosse = Spanish broza, bruza, a brush; cf. Middle Latin brustia, a kind of comb (resting partly perhaps on Middle High German bürste, a brush, from borst = Anglo-Saxon byrst, bristle: see bristle); perhaps from Middle High German broz, a bud, shoot: see browse. The forms and senses are involved; for the senses, cf. broom.
  2. from Middle English bruschen, from Old French brosser, intransitive verb, beat the brush or thicket for game, scour the country, also simply cross, pass, French brosser (= Spanish brozar, brush), from brosse, brush, thicket: see brush, n.
 

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/brəʃ/
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