brush

Etymology

From Middle English brusshe, from Old French broisse (Modern French brosse), from Vulgar Latin *brustia, from Frankish *bursti, from Proto-Germanic *burstiz (“bristle”), or also Vulgar Latin *bruscia, from Proto-Germanic *bruskaz (“tuft, thicket, underbrush”), which could be from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrusgo-.

noun

1. An implement consisting of multiple more or less flexible bristles or other filaments attached to a handle, used for any of various purposes including cleaning, painting, and arranging hair.
2. The act of brushing something.
   She gave her hair a quick brush.
3. A piece of conductive material, usually carbon, serving to maintain electrical contact between the stationary and rotating parts of a machine.
4. A brush-like electrical discharge of sparks.
   If there was a sharp point nearby, electricity would stream from it in a luminous brush, a little corposant, and one could blow out candles with the outstreaming “electric wind,” or even get this to turn a little rotor on its pivot. 2001, Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
5. (uncountable) Wild vegetation, generally larger than grass but smaller than trees. See shrubland.
   We broke away toward the north, the tribe howling on our track. Across the open spaces we gained, and in the brush they caught up with us, and more than once it was nip and tuck. 1906, Jack London, Before Adam, chapter 12
   One typical Grecian kiln engorged one thousand muleloads of juniper wood in a single burn. Fifty such kilns would devour six thousand metric tons of trees and brush annually. 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion
6. A short and sometimes occasional encounter or experience.
   He has had brushes with communism from time to time.
   The usual visual grammar was in place – a carpet in the street, people in paddocks awaiting a brush with something glamorous, blokes with earpieces, birds in frocks of colliding colours that if sighted in nature would indicate the presence of poison. 13 September 2013, Russell Brand, “Russell Brand and the GQ awards: 'It's amazing how absurd it seems'”, in The Guardian
7. The furry tail of an animal, especially of a fox.
8. (zoology) A tuft of hair on the mandibles.
9. (archaic) A short contest, or trial, of speed.
   1860, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage (originally published in Cornhill Magazine Mark and Lord Lufton had been boys together, and his lordship knew that Mark in his heart would enjoy a brush across the country quite as well as he himself.
10. (music) An instrument, resembling a brush, used to produce a soft sound from drums or cymbals.
11. (computer graphics) An on-screen tool for "painting" a particular colour or texture.
    Your bitmap image appears along the painted stroke. If you'd like to permanently create a custom sprite brush, it's fairly easy to adapt an existing MEL file[…]. 2007, Lee Lanier, Maya Professional Tips and Techniques, page 12
12. (computer graphics) A set of defined design and parameters that produce drawn strokes of a certain texture and quality.
    downloading brushes for Photoshop
13. (video games) In 3D video games, a convex polyhedron, especially one that defines structure of the play area.
14. (poker, slang) The floorperson of a poker room, usually in a casino.
15. (North Wisconsin, uncountable) Evergreen boughs, especially balsam, locally cut and baled for export, usually for use in making wreaths.

verb

1. (transitive) To clean with a brush.
   Brush your teeth.
2. (transitive) To untangle or arrange with a brush.
   Brush your hair.
3. (transitive) To apply with a brush.
   I am brushing the paint onto the walls.
4. (transitive) To remove with a sweeping motion.
   'She brushes the flour off your clothes.
5. (transitive, intransitive) To touch with a sweeping motion, or lightly in passing.
   Her scarf brushed his skin.
   Maybe you will find a love that you discover accidentally, who falls against you gently as a pickpocket brushes your thigh. October 28 1990, Paul Simon, “Further to Fly”, in The Rhythm of the Saints, Warner Bros.
6. (intransitive) To clean one's teeth by brushing them.
   Of course, Halloween does not have to be completely treatless. Plain chocolate candy is okay, provided you remember to brush afterwards. 2000, USA Today, volume 129, numbers 2662-2673, page 92