rubbing
part of speech
verb (present participle of rub: rub, rubs, rubbed, rubbing); noun (a rubbing, rubbings)
meaning for a pupil
1) Rubbing means moving your hand or something against a surface again and again, pressing on it. tree →
2) Rubbing out means removing pencil marks with a rubber or eraser. tree →
3) A rubbing is a picture made by putting paper on a rough surface and rubbing it with a crayon (a bark rubbing, a coin rubbing). tree →
sense in the lessons
In science, rubbing creates friction, which makes heat (rub your hands to warm them) and can make static electricity (rub a balloon on your hair). In art lessons: leaf and bark rubbings. In health: rubbing your eyes can spread germs; rubbing on sun cream protects skin. Phrases: rubbing your hands, rubbing out, rubbing it in (reminding someone of a mistake).
examples
- I am rubbing my hands to keep them warm. tree →
- She is rubbing out the wrong answer. tree →
- Rubbing a balloon on your hair makes it stick to the wall. tree →
- We made bark rubbings with crayons. tree →
- Stop rubbing your eyes. tree →
- Rubbing two sticks together can make fire. tree →
- The cat is rubbing against my legs. tree →
- I know I lost, don't keep rubbing it in! tree →
- Rubbing his hands together happily, he mumbled half to himself: tree →
note
Double b: rubbing. In British English a «rubber» is an eraser; in American English «rubber» can mean something else, so «eraser» is safer. Friction from rubbing always makes some heat.
In the corpora
- Skin even fights back against rubbing: a blister cushions a sore spot, and a guitarist's fingertips grow thick hard calluses.
- Rubbing makes skin grow thicker into calluses, which protect it; barefoot runners grow thick soles that protect like shoes.
- Dock leaves on nettle stings help mostly because rubbing and coolness soothe; they are not a strong chemical cure.
- Rubbing an eye with dirty hands can scratch it or carry germs into it, causing a painful infection.
- Rubbing damages frostbitten skin; she should warm it slowly instead.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «rubbing» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.