BRUSH
What does "BRUSH" mean?
An implement with bristles for cleaning, painting, or grooming; also a brief contact.
Meanings
- A tool of bristles, hair, or wire set in a handle, used for cleaning, painting, smoothing, or grooming. He dipped the brush in white and started on the fence.
- To clean, smooth, or apply something with a brush. Brush your teeth before bed.
- To touch lightly in passing. Her sleeve brushed against the wet paint.
- A brief, often unwelcome encounter, especially with danger or authority. He had a brush with the law in his twenties.
- Dense undergrowth, small trees, and scrub. The deer vanished into the brush.
Did you know?
- A fine natural paintbrush owes its smooth stroke to a quirk of hog hair: each bristle naturally splits at the tip into tiny 'flags' that grip and release paint, something synthetic fibres long struggled to copy.
Word origin
From Old French 'broce' (brushwood, undergrowth); the cleaning tool and the scrubland sense both trace back to the idea of a bundle of twigs.
Remember it
BRUSH ends in a SH - the sound a brush makes sweeping across a surface.
A little poem
A single brush against a passing sleeve-
no words, no name, no reason to believe-
and yet the whole gray morning learns to leave.
tercet
Wordplay
- I had a brush with the painter and a brush with the law in the same afternoon - only one left a stain.
What it teaches
The lightest brush can still leave a mark; mind what you graze in passing.
Quick facts
What does BRUSH mean?
An implement with bristles for cleaning, painting, or grooming; also a brief contact.
Is BRUSH a valid word?
Yes — BRUSH is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is BRUSH?
BRUSH has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does BRUSH come from?
From Old French 'broce' (brushwood, undergrowth); the cleaning tool and the scrubland sense both trace back to the idea of a bundle of twigs.
What can BRUSH teach us?
The lightest brush can still leave a mark; mind what you graze in passing.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.