brush
A tool with bristles used for cleaning, grooming, or painting.
The word brush has several meanings:
- A tool with bristles attached to a handle, used for cleaning, grooming, or painting. You use a toothbrush to clean your teeth, a hairbrush to untangle your hair, and a paintbrush to apply color to a canvas. The bristles can be made from natural materials like animal hair or synthetic fibers like nylon.
- To clean, groom, or apply something using a brush. You brush your teeth twice a day, brush your dog's coat to remove loose fur, or brush paint onto a fence.
- To touch something lightly in passing. When you walk through tall grass, the stems brush against your legs. A bird might brush your shoulder as it flies past. This kind of contact is so brief and gentle that it barely registers.
- A brief, often unpleasant encounter. If you have a brush with danger, you came close to something risky but escaped. A brush with the law means a minor run-in with the police or legal trouble.
- Dense vegetation or wild undergrowth. In the American West, brush refers to shrubs and small trees growing wild. Firefighters worry about brush fires spreading quickly through this dry vegetation.