brushed

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of brush.

   The painter brushed a thin layer of varnish over the wood.

   She had brushed the snow off the car before driving away.

   Note

   A single regular -ed form covers both the past tense and the participle: he brushed the coat, the coat had been brushed, the coat was brushed. Not every use takes an object. Brushed past means touched lightly in passing, and brushed on its own can mean cleaned one's teeth. The passive participle is the bridge to adjective uses such as brushed hair.

2. 2
   adjective

   Roughened on the surface by rubbing with an abrasive brush, especially as a decorative or functional finish.

   The appliance comes with a brushed nickel finish instead of a polished one.

   Brushed flannel sheets feel warm and soft against the skin.

   Oppositepolished

   Note

   A finish named for the tool that makes it. On metal such as aluminum, copper, brass or nickel, abrasion with wire or bristle brushes leaves fine parallel scratches that dull the shine and hide marks, so brushed is the usual opposite of polished. On cloth such as cotton, wool or flannel, the same rubbing raises a nap that softens the fabric's hand and traps warmth.

3. 3
   adjective

   Cleaned, tidied, or straightened by being worked over with a brush.

   He arrived with brushed hair and a pressed suit.

   The horse's brushed mane gleamed after the morning grooming.

   Similarcombed, groomed, neat, tidy

   Oppositeunkempt, messy, tousled, disheveled

   Note

   Grooming is a matter of degree here. Writers say very brushed hair, a coat very brushed and very blue, guests who looked very brushed and washed, and the comparative more brushed is standard. The intensifier shifts the meaning from a single action to an overall look of careful neatness. Very brushed describes how someone appears, not what was just done to them.

4. 4
   adjective

   Written or painted with a brush rather than with a pen or printing press.

   The gallery displayed a scroll covered in delicate, brushed characters.

   Each poster featured brushed lettering instead of printed type.

   Similarpainted

   Note

   Writing about art uses it to keep the painter's hand in view. In East Asian calligraphy, the brushed word or brushed original is the work as first written, distinct from an inscription later carved after it. In Western painting, brushed paint is set against dripped or poured paint. It sits naturally before its noun: brushed characters, brushed lettering, brushed calligraphy.

5. 5
   adjective

   Covered in brush or scrub; thick with low, woody vegetation.

   The brushed canyon walls made the trail hard to follow.

   Cattle wandered through the brushed lowlands searching for shade.

   Similarscrubby, overgrown

   Note

   Here brush is the noun for scrub, and the adjective means thick with it: brushed pasture, heavily brushed country that was hard going for cavalry, a river's thickly brushed margins. Beware that the land-clearing meaning says the opposite. Intensifiers like heavily and thickly signal the covered sense. Talk of clearing, seeding or stumping signals the cleared one.

6. 6
   adjective

   Cleared of brush or scrub, with the undergrowth removed.

   The newly brushed firebreak protected the houses below.

   Workers left the brushed roadside clear of tangled growth.

   Oppositeovergrown

   Note

   Land-clearing and forestry writing uses it for ground where the scrub has been cut, the reverse of the scrub-covered meaning. Brushing is the first stage, before stumping, seeding or planting. Swenehart and Clark warned in 1919 that brushed areas left unseeded soon grow up to weeds. Foresters also speak of partial brushed plots, cleared in strips.

7. 7
   adjective

   Cleaned by rotating brushes that loosen and lift away surface dirt, instead of by washing with water.

   Brushed potatoes keep better in the pantry than washed ones.

   The packing line sold brushed parsnips alongside the washed range.

   Oppositewashed

   Note

   A produce-trade term that branches off the grooming meaning. Its working contrast is with washed: Industrial Refrigeration in 1906 compared decay in unbrushed, brushed and washed oranges, and washed potatoes still cost more than brushed ones. Cleaning dry avoids the moisture of washing, which can help produce keep longer, so brushed vegetables are often the ones meant for storage.

8. 8
   adjective

   Formed into a swarm artificially by being brushed off the honeycomb.

   The brushed bees were packaged and shipped to a new apiary.

   He preferred a brushed swarm for restocking his empty hives.

   Note

   Early twentieth-century beekeepers paired it with shaken. Shaken or brushed swarms were the two hand methods of making an artificial swarm: the bees were either knocked loose or swept off the comb. Ernest Rob Root's Facts about Bees (1907) cautions that the method does little for swarm prevention unless the bees are actually preparing to swarm.

Showing meanings only. Show all 8