Royne Royne (roin)
transitive verb [ French
rogner , Old French
rooignier , to clip, pare, scare, from Latin
rotundus round See
Rotund .]
To bite; to gnaw. [ Written also
roin .] [ Obsolete]
Spenser.
Roynish Royn"ish adjective [ French
rogneux , from
rogne scab, mange, itch.]
Mangy; scabby; hence, mean; paltry; troublesome. [ Written also
roinish .] [ Obsolete] "The
roynish clown."
Shak.
Royster, Roysterer Roys"ter, Roys"ter·er noun same as Roister , Roisterer .
Royston crow Roys"ton crow` [ So called from Royston , a town in England.] (Zoology) See Hooded crow , under Hooded .
Roytelet Roy"te·let noun [ French
roitelet , dim. of
roi king.]
A little king. [ Archaic]
Heylin. Bancroft.
Roytish Roy"tish adjective [ Prob. for
riotish , from
riot , like Scot.
roytous for
riotous .]
Wild; irregular. [ Obsolete]
Ru bible Ru" bi·ble noun A ribble. [ Obsolete]
Chaucer.
Rub Rub transitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Rubbed ;
present participle & verbal noun Rubbing .] [ Probably of Celtic origin; confer W.
rhwbiaw , gael.
rub .]
1. To subject (a body) to the action of something moving over its surface with pressure and friction, especially to the action of something moving back and forth; as, to rub the flesh with the hand; to rub wood with sandpaper. It shall be expedient, after that body is cleaned, to rub the body with a coarse linen cloth.
Sir T. Elyot. 2. To move over the surface of (a body) with pressure and friction; to graze; to chafe; as, the boat rubs the ground. 3. To cause (a body) to move with pressure and friction along a surface; as, to rub the hand over the body. Two bones rubbed hard against one another.
Arbuthnot. 4. To spread a substance thinly over; to smear. The smoothed plank, . . .
New rubbed with balm.
Milton. 5. To scour; to burnish; to polish; to brighten; to cleanse; -- often with up or over ; as, to rub up silver. The whole business of our redemption is to rub over the defaced copy of the creation.
South. 6. To hinder; to cross; to thwart. [ R.]
'T is the duke's pleasure,
Whose disposition, all the world well knows,
Will not be rubbed nor stopped.
Shak. To rub down .
(a) To clean by rubbing; to comb or curry; as, to down a horse .
(b) To reduce or remove by rubbing; as, to rub down the rough points. --
To rub off ,
to clean anything by rubbing; to separate by friction; as, to rub off rust. --
To rub out ,
to remove or separate by friction; to erase; to obliterate; as, to rub out a mark or letter; to rub out a stain. --
To rub up .
(a) To burnish; to polish; to clean .
(b) To excite; to awaken; to rouse to action; as, to rub up the memory.
Rub Rub intransitive verb 1. To move along the surface of a body with pressure; to grate; as, a wheel rubs against the gatepost. 2. To fret; to chafe; as, to rub upon a sore. 3. To move or pass with difficulty; as, to rub through woods, as huntsmen; to rub through the world. To rub along or
on ,
to go on with difficulty; as, they manage, with strict economy, to rub along . [ Colloq.]
Rub Rub noun [ Confer W.
rhwb . See Rub, v,t,]
1. The act of rubbing; friction. 2. That which rubs; that which tends to hinder or obstruct motion or progress; hindrance; obstruction, an impediment; especially, a difficulty or obstruction hard to overcome; a pinch. Every rub is smoothed on our way.
Shak. To sleep, perchance to dream; ay, there's the rub .
Shak. Upon this rub , the English ambassadors thought fit to demur.
Hayward. One knows not, certainly, what other rubs might have been ordained for us by a wise Providence.
W. Besant. 3. Inequality of surface, as of the ground in the game of bowls; unevenness. Shak. 4. Something grating to the feelings; sarcasm; joke; as, a hard rub . 5. Imperfection; failing; fault. [ Obsolete]
Beau. & Fl. 6. A chance. [ Obsolete]
Flight shall leave no Greek a rub .
Chapman. 7. A stone, commonly flat, used to sharpen cutting tools; a whetstone; -- called also rubstone . Rub iron ,
an iron guard on a wagon body, against which a wheel rubs when cramped too much.
Rub Rub noun --
Rub of the green (Golf) ,
anything happening to a ball in motion, such as its being deflected or stopped by any agency outside the match, or by the fore caddie.
Ruba-dub Rub"a-dub noun The sound of a drum when continuously beaten; hence, a clamorous, repeated sound; a clatter. The rubadub of the abolition presses.
D. Webster.
Rubaiyat Ru·bai·yat" noun plural ;
sing. Rubai [ Arabic
rubā'iyāh quatrian, plural of
rubā'iy having four radicals, from
rubā' four.]
Quatrians; as, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Sometimes in plural construed as sing. , a poem in such stanzas.
Rubato Ru·ba"to adjective [ Italian ]
Robbed; borrowed. Rubbage Rub"bage noun Rubbish. [ Obsolete]
Rubber Rub"ber noun 1. One who, or that which, rubs. Specifically:
(a) An instrument or thing used in rubbing, polishing, or cleaning. (b) A coarse file, or the rough part of a file. (c) A whetstone; a rubstone. (d) An eraser, usually made of caoutchouc. (e) The cushion of an electrical machine. (f) One who performs massage, especially in a Turkish bath. (g) Something that chafes or annoys; hence, something that grates on the feelings; a sarcasm; a rub. Thackeray. 2. In some games, as whist, the odd game, as the third or the fifth, when there is a tie between the players; as, to play the rubber ; also, a contest determined by the winning of two out of three games; as, to play a rubber of whist. Beaconsfield. "A
rubber of cribbage."
Dickens. 3. India rubber; caoutchouc. 4. An overshoe made of India rubber. [ Colloq.]
Antimony rubber ,
an elastic durable variety of vulcanized caoutchouc of a red color. It contains antimony sulphide as an important constituent. --
Hard rubber ,
a kind of vulcanized caoutchouc which nearly resembles horn in texture, rigidity, etc. --
India rubber ,
caoutchouc. See Caoutchouc . --
Rubber cloth ,
cloth covered with caoutchouc for excluding water or moisture. --
Rubber dam (Dentistry) ,
a shield of thin sheet rubber clasped around a tooth to exclude saliva from the tooth.
Rubberize Rub"ber·ize transitive verb To coat or impregnate with rubber or a rubber solution or preparation, as silk.
Rubbidge Rub"bidge noun Rubbish. [ Obsolete]
Bp. Hall.
Rubbing Rub"bing adjective & noun from Rub , v.
Rubbish Rub"bish noun [ Middle English
robows ,
robeux , rubble, originally an Old French plural from an assumed dim. of
robe , probably in the sense of trash; confer Italian
robaccia trash,
roba stuff, goods, wares, robe. Thus, etymologically
rubbish is the plural of
rubble . See
Robe , and confer
Rubble .]
Waste or rejected matter; anything worthless; valueless stuff; trash; especially, fragments of building materials or fallen buildings; ruins; débris. What rubbish and what offal!
Shak. he saw the town's one half in rubbish lie.
Dryden. Rubbish pulley .
See Gin block , under Gin .
Rubbish Rub"bish adjective Of or pertaining to rubbish; of the quality of rubbish; trashy. De Quincey.
Rubble Rub"ble noun [ From an assumed Old French dim. of
robe See
Rubbish .]
1. Water-worn or rough broken stones; broken bricks, etc., used in coarse masonry, or to fill up between the facing courses of walls. Inside [ the wall] there was rubble or mortar.
Jowett (Thucyd.). 2. Rough stone as it comes from the quarry; also, a quarryman's term for the upper fragmentary and decomposed portion of a mass of stone; brash. Brande & C. 3. (Geol.) A mass or stratum of fragments or rock lying under the alluvium, and derived from the neighboring rock. Lyell. 4. plural The whole of the bran of wheat before it is sorted into pollard, bran, etc. [ Prov. Eng.]
Simmonds. Coursed rubble ,
rubble masonry in which courses are formed by leveling off the work at certain heights.
Rubblestone Rub"ble·stone` noun See Rubble , 1 and 2.
Rubblework Rub"ble·work` noun Masonry constructed of unsquared stones that are irregular in size and shape.
Rubbly Rub"bly adjective Relating to, or containing, rubble.
Rubedinous Ru·bed"i·nous adjective [ Latin
rubedo redness, from
rubere to be red.]
Reddish. [ R.]
M. Stuart.
Rubefacient Ru`be·fa"cient adjective [ Latin
rubefaciens , present participle of
rubefacere to make red;
rubere to be red +
facere to make.]
Making red. --
noun (Medicine) An external application which produces redness of the skin.
Rubefaction Ru`be·fac"tion noun The act or process of making red.
Rubelet Ru"be·let (ru"be*lĕt)
noun A little ruby. Herrick.
Rubella Ru·bel"la noun [ New Latin , from Latin
rubellus reddish.]
(Medicine) An acute specific disease with a dusky red cutaneous eruption resembling that of measles, but unattended by catarrhal symptoms; -- called also German measles .
Rubelle Ru·belle" noun [ Latin
rubellus reddish.]
A red color used in enameling. Weale.
Rubellite Ru"bel·lite noun [ Latin
rubellus reddish, dim. of
ruber red.]
(Min.) A variety of tourmaline varying in color from a pale rose to a deep ruby, and containing lithium.
Rubeola Ru·be"o·la noun [ New Latin , from Latin
ruber red.]
(Medicine) (a) the measles. (b) Rubella.
Ruberythrinic Ru`ber·y·thrin"ic adjective [ Latin
ruber red +
erythrin .]
(Chemistry) Pertaining to, or designating, an acid extracted from madder root. It is a yellow crystalline substance from which alizarin is obtained.
Rubescence Ru·bes"cence noun The quality or state of being rubescent; a reddening; a flush.
Rubescent Ru·bes"cent adjective [ Latin
rubescens ,
-entis , present participle of
rubescere to grow red, v. incho from
rubere to be red: confer French
rubescent . See
Ruby .]
Growing or becoming red; tending to redness.
Rubiaceous Ru`bi·a"ceous adjective [ Latin
rubia madder, from
rubeus red.]
(Botany) Of or pertaining to a very large natural order of plants ( Rubiaceæ ) named after the madder ( Rubia tinctoria ), and including about three hundred and seventy genera and over four thousand species. Among them are the coffee tree, the trees yielding peruvian bark and quinine, the madder, the quaker ladies, and the trees bearing the edible fruits called genipap and Sierre Leone peach, besides many plants noted for the beauty or the fragrance of their blossoms.
Rubiacin Ru"bi·a·cin noun [ Latin
rubia madder, from
rubeus red.]
(Chem) A substance found in madder root, and probably identical with ruberythrinic acid.
Rubian Ru"bi·an noun [ Latin
rubia madder, from
rubeus red.]
(Chemistry) One of several color-producing glycosides found in madder root.
Rubianic Ru`bi·an"ic adjective (Chemistry) pertaining to, or derived from, rubian; specifically, designating an acid called also ruberythrinic acid. [ Obsolete]
Rubican Ru"bi·can adjective [ French]
Colored a prevailing red, bay, or black, with flecks of white or gray especially on the flanks; -- said of horses. Smart.
Rubicelle Ru"bi·celle noun [ Confer French
rubacelle ,
rubicelle , from Latin
rubeus red, reddish.]
(Min.) A variety of ruby of a yellowish red color, from Brazil.
Rubicon Ru"bi·con noun (Anc. geog.) A small river which separated Italy from Cisalpine Gaul, the province alloted to Julius Cæsar. » By leading an army across this river, contrary to the prohibition of the civil government at Rome, Cæsar precipitated the civil war which resulted in the death of Pompey and the overthrow of the senate; hence, the phrase
to pass or
cross the Rubicon signifies to take the decisive step by which one is committed to a hazardous enterprise from which there is no retreat.
Rubicund Ru"bi·cund adjective [ Latin
rubicundus , from
rubere to be red, akin to
ruber red. See
Red .]
Inclining to redness; ruddy; red. "His
rubicund face."
Longfellow.
Rubicundity Ru`bi·cun"di·ty noun [ Late Latin
rubicunditas .]
The quality or state of being rubicund; ruddiness. To parade your rubicundity and gray hairs.
Walpole.
Rubidic Ru·bid"ic adjective (Chemistry) Of or pertaining to rubidium; containing rubidium.
Rubidine Ru"bi·dine noun (Chemistry) A nitrogenous base homologous with pyridine, obtained from coal tar as an oily liquid, C 11 H 17 N; also, any one of the group od metameric compounds of which rubidine is the type.
Rubidium Ru·bid"i·um noun [ New Latin , from Latin
rubidus red, from
rubere to be red. So called from two
dark red spectroscopic lines by means of which it was discovered in the lepidolite from Rozena, Moravia. See
Rubicund .]
(Chemistry) A rare metallic element. It occurs quite widely, but in small quantities, and always combined. It is isolated as a soft yellowish white metal, analogous to potassium in most of its properties. Symbol Rb. Atomic weight, 85.2.
Rubific Ru·bif"ic adjective [ Latin
ruber red +
facere to make.]
Making red; as, rubific rays. Grew.
Rubification Ru`bi·fi·ca"tion noun [ Confer French
rubification .]
The act of making red. Howell.
Use the search box below if you want to search in Websters only, use the search box at the right to search all of Enyclo.
