abrade

/əˈbreɪd/

Other forms: abraded; abrading; abrades

When you abrade something, you scrub it vigorously. To clean your dirty bathtub well, you'll have to abrade it with a scrub brush and powdered bleach.

When you scour something so vigorously that you remove dirt, grime, or even the surface of the thing you're scrubbing, you abrade it. You might need to abrade your fingers with a nail brush to get them clean after working on your oily car engine all afternoon. The word abrade is related to abrasion — a scrape on the skin — and both words come from the Latin root abradere, which means "to scrape off."

Definitions of abrade

1. verb

   rub hard or scrub
   synonyms: scour

   type of:

   rub

   move over something with pressure
2. verb

   wear away
   synonyms: abrase, corrade, rub down, rub off

   types:

   chafe, excoriate

   tear or wear off the skin or make sore by abrading

   rasp

   scrape with a rasp

   type of:

   wear away, wear off

   diminish, as by friction