rubbing

Pluralrubbings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of rub.

   Rubbing the lamp gently, the boy waited for something to happen.

   The cat was rubbing against the door, asking to be let out.

   Note

   The -ing form doubles the b of rub, as short verbs ending in one consonant do. It works as a participle (the cat was rubbing against the door) and as a gerund (rubbing only spread the stain). Every sense of rub carries over, including the polishing one that often takes up or over. The same spelling also names the paper copy of a carving, a noun with its own Middle English history.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A copy of an embossed or carved surface, made by laying paper over it and rubbing across it with graphite, crayon, or another coloring agent.

   He pinned paper over the carved plaque and took a careful rubbing of the lettering.

   Collectors trade rubbings taken from ancient temple carvings.

   Note

   Here the name for an action became the name for the thing it produces. Middle English already had rubbinge, built from rub plus -ing. The usual verb is take, and the medium can lead a compound. R. S. McNaught, writing in Railway Magazine in 1951, describes an enthusiast taking a pencil-rubbing of a worn Great Eastern Railway crest to add to his collection.

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