rub up

verb

rubbed up; rubbing up; rubs up

: to revive or refresh knowledge of : recall

: to improve the keenness of (a mental faculty)

Examples of rub up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

It’s rubbed up against human beings in the middle of a pit. —

Emma Madden, Vulture, 31 Oct. 2024 As a type, there is something of the frontier sheriff or noir detective in the exorcist, someone who has rubbed up against seamy outlaws and knows their wiles. —

Sam Kestenbaum, Harper's Magazine, 21 June 2024 Experiment with what feels best — pressing down on it with the pads of your fingers or your palms, using your fingertips to rub in a wide circle around it, rubbing up and down over it. —

Molly Longman, refinery29.com, 8 Apr. 2024 As the ash particles rub up against one another, their atoms shed or pick up electrons, which creates positively and negatively charged areas of the ash plume, according to the Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. —

Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 May 2024 See all Example Sentences for rub up