rubbing-up = masturbation; to do a rub up = to masturbate. Fr. se branler, se coller une douce, &c. Also (2) to copulate: see Ride.
1599. Jonson, Ev. Man Out of His Humour, iv. 4. Carlo. Let a man sweat once a week in a hot-house and be well rubbed and froted, with a good plump juicy wench, and sweet linen, he shall ne'er have the pox.
1656. Fletcher, Martiall, xi. 30. Thus Phillis rub me up, thus tickle me.
1700. Congreve, Way of the World, i. 9. They must wait a rub off, if I want appetite.
1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 5. Thou that rubs up the girls of Lilla. Ibid., 42. Ever since I saw . . . Thetis stroking your knees, as on the ground you sat, And rubbing up, the Lord knows what.
3. (old).—To run or take away. Also to rub off; to rub to the Whitt = to send to Newgate (B. E., Grose).
c. 1550. Bansley, Pryde of Women [Hazlitt, Pop. Poet., iv. 238]. Rubbe forthe, olde trottes, to the devyl worde.
1676. Warening for Housekeepers [Farmer, Musa Pedestris (1896), 30.] O then they rub us to the whitt.
1688. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. The Captain whipt his Porker out, and away rubb'd Prigster and call'd the watch.
c. 1704. Gentleman Instructed, 351. In a huff he . . . rub'd off, and left the field to Eusebius.
1737. Old Ballad, 'Black Procession [Bacchus and Venus]. Toure you well; hark you well, see Where they are rubb'd.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, 'Hundred Stretches Hence.' Some rubbed to whit had napped a winder.
Colloquialisms.—To rub along (on or out) = (1) to manage somehow, to live indifferently, and (2) = to live tolerably well (B. E., c. 1696); to rub down = 1 (police) to search: the prisoner's arms are raised, the vest unbuttoned, and the officer's hand passed over the body: also to run the rule over; (2) to scold, rate, or take to task; to rub in = (1) to nag, annoy, or aggravate persistently: Fr. monter une scie; (2) to peg away, insist, or exaggerate; to be rubbed about = to be made a convenience; to rub out (tailors') = to cut out, also (2—colloquial) to forget old grievances, to cancel a debt: also to rub off; to rub out = to kill: hence rubbed out = dead; to rub up = (1) to refresh the memory (B. E., c. 1696, Grose), (2) to polish (B. E., c. 1696: now recognised), and (3) to touch a tender point or remembrance: hence to rub up the wrong way = to irritate, to annoy: also to rub on the gaule; to give a rub of the thumb = to explain or show the way.
1461-73. Paston Letters. I wyll rubbe on.
1546. Heywood, Proverbs, Rub him on the gall.
1610. Mirr. Mag., 463. Enough, you rub'd the guiltie on the gaule.
d. 1704. Brown, Works, i. 193. Our affairs have made a shift to rub on without any great conjuring. Ibid., ii. 118. With a little rubbing up my memory I may be able to give you the lives of all the mitred hogs.
1778. Sheridan, Rivals, iii. 4. I must rub up my balancing, and chasing, and boring.
d. 1790. Franklin, Autobiog., 73. We had nearly consumed all my pistoles, and now just rubbed on from hand to mouth.
1816. Scott, Old Mortality, xliii. Evandale is the man on earth whom he hates worst, and . . . were he once rubbed out of the way, all, he thinks, will be his own.
1842. Punch's Almanac. You see Jinks with a three days' beard—you rub out the slates—forget his action, and—.
1848. Ruxton, Far West, 65. In-*articulate words reached the ears of his companions as they bent over him. Rubbed out at last, they heard him say.
