Brush Means a Tool and a Thicket
A brush cleans or paints. A second, unrelated brush means rough scrubby ground, which is where brushfire and brushwood come from.
A brush is a tool with bristles — and also, in a separate sense, rough scrubby ground. The two are usually treated as different words: the tool comes from Old French *brosse*, and the thicket sense, which gives *brushwood*, *brushfire* and the Australian bush country's American cousin, is closely related but developed on its own. A third use, *a brush with the law*, means a brief encounter.
- A bristled tool. *A paint brush.*
- Scrubby ground. *Fire spread through the brush.*
- A brief encounter. *A brush with the police.*
- To touch lightly. *Her sleeve brushed his arm.*
- Brush off — to dismiss. *He brushed off the criticism.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | brush | A wire brush. |
| Plural | brushes | Two brushes. |
| Verb | brush | Brush your coat. |
| Compound | brushwood | A pile of brushwood. |
| Compound | brushfire | A brushfire. |
- Clean the brush with white spirit.The tool.
- The fire moved fast through dry brush.Vegetation.
- He had a brush with the authorities.A brief encounter.
Brush phrasal verbs
- Brush off — dismiss without consideration
- Brush up — improve a skill that has faded
- Brush aside — set an objection out of the way
- Brush past — move by with light contact
- Brush under the carpet — conceal a problem
Old French *brosse*, brushwood or a brush, of uncertain origin. English has had the tool sense since the 1300s and the vegetation sense from around the same time.
Are the two brushes the same word?
They come from closely related Old French forms and are usually listed separately. The link is that early brushes were made from twigs.
What does brush up mean?
To refresh a skill that has grown rusty, as in brushing up your French.