Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - brush

(brushes, brushing, brushed) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. A brush is an object which has a large number of bristles or hairs fixed to it. You use brushes for painting, for cleaning things, and for tidying your hair. We gave him paint and brushes... Stains are removed with buckets of soapy water and scrubbing brushes. ...a hair brush. N-COUNT 2. If you brush something or brush something such as dirt off it, you clean it or tidy it using a brush. Have you brushed your teeth?... She brushed the powder out of her hair... Using a small brush, he brushed away the fine sawdust. VERB: V n, V n prep, V n with adv • Brush is also a noun. I gave it a quick brush with my hairbrush. N-SING: a N 3. If you brush something with a liquid, you apply a layer of that liquid using a brush. Take a sheet of filo pastry and brush it with melted butter. VERB: V n with n 4. If you brush something somewhere, you remove it with quick light movements of your hands. He brushed his hair back with both hands... He brushed the snow off the windshield. VERB: V n with adv, V n prep 5. If one thing brushes against another or if you brush one thing against another, the first thing touches the second thing lightly while passing it. Something brushed against her leg... I felt her dark brown hair brushing the back of my shoulder... She knelt and brushed her lips softly across Michael’s cheek. VERB: V prep, V n, V n prep 6. If you brush past someone or brush by them, you almost touch them as you go past them. (WRITTEN) My father would burst into the kitchen, brushing past my mother... VERB: V prep/adv 7. If you have a brush with someone, you have an argument or disagreement with them. You use brush when you want to make an argument or disagreement sound less serious than it really is. My first brush with a headmaster came six years ago... It is his third brush with the law in less than a year. N-COUNT: usu N with n c darkgreen]vagueness 8. If you have a brush with a particular situation, usually an unpleasant one, you almost experience it. ...the trauma of a brush with death... The corporation is fighting to survive its second brush with bankruptcy. = encounter N-COUNT: N with n 9. Brush is an area of rough open land covered with small bushes and trees. You also use brush to refer to the bushes and trees on this land. ...the brush fire that destroyed nearly 500 acres. ...a meadow of low brush and grass. = bush N-UNCOUNT 10. see also broad-brush, nail brush 11. tarred with the same brush: see tar