Definition of "brush"

brush

/bɹʌʃ/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural brushes
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. The act of brushing something.
  Quotations
  as leavesDo on the oak, have with one winter's brushFell from their boughs
  c. 1605–1608, 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, [Act IV, scene iii], page 92
3. A piece of conductive material, usually carbon, serving to maintain electrical contact between the stationary and rotating parts of a machine.
4. A brush-like electrical discharge of sparks.
  Quotations
  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.
  2001, Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
5. (uncountable) Wild vegetation, generally larger than grass but smaller than trees. See shrubland.
  Quotations
  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.
  1906, Jack London, Before Adam, chapter 12
  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.
  2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion
6. A short and sometimes occasional encounter or experience.
  Quotations
  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.
  2013 September 13, Russell Brand, “Russell Brand and the GQ awards: 'It's amazing how absurd it seems'”, in The Guardian
7. The furry tail of an animal, especially of a fox.
  Quotations
  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.
  1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […]
8. (zoology) A tuft of hair on the mandibles.
9. (archaic) A short contest, or trial, of speed.
  Quotations
  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.
  1860, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage (originally published in Cornhill Magazine
10. (music) An instrument, resembling a brush, used to produce a soft sound from drums or cymbals.
11. (computer graphics) An on-screen tool for "painting" a particular colour or texture.
  Quotations
  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 […].
  2007, Lee Lanier, Maya Professional Tips and Techniques, page 12
12. (computer graphics) A set of defined design and parameters that produce drawn strokes of a certain texture and quality.
13. (video games) In 3D video games, a convex polyhedron, especially one that defines structure of the play area.
14. (poker, slang) The floorperson of a poker room, usually in a casino.
15. (North Wisconsin, uncountable) Evergreen boughs, especially balsam, locally cut and baled for export, usually for use in making wreaths.
verb
third-person singular simple present brushes, present participle brushing, simple past and past participle brushed
1. (transitive) To clean with a brush.
2. (transitive) To untangle or arrange with a brush.
3. (transitive) To apply with a brush.
4. (transitive) To remove with a sweeping motion.
  Quotations
  Caliban: As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd / With raven's feather from unwholesome fen / Drop on you both! […]
  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, [Act I, scene ii]
5. (transitive, intransitive) To touch with a sweeping motion, or lightly in passing.
  Quotations
  Some spread their sails, some with strong oars sweep / The waters smooth, and brush the buxom wave.
  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
  Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings.
  1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
  Maybe you will find a love that you discover accidentally, who falls against you gently as a pickpocket brushes your thigh.
  1990 October 28, Paul Simon, “Further to Fly”, in The Rhythm of the Saints, Warner Bros.
6. (intransitive) To clean one's teeth by brushing them.
  Quotations
  Of course, Halloween does not have to be completely treatless. Plain chocolate candy is okay, provided you remember to brush afterwards.
  2000, USA Today, volume 129, numbers 2662-2673, page 92

Definition of "brush"

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