Word Direct Answers

What does "scrub" mean?

Scrub: One who labors hard and lives meanly; a mean fellow. "A sorry scrub." Bunyan. We should go there in as proper a manner possible; nor altogether like the scrubs about us. Goldsmith.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Something small and mean.
  2. 3.A worn-out brush. Ainsworth.
  3. 4.A thicket or jungle, often specified by the name of the prevailing plant; as, oak scrub, palmetto scrub, etc.
  4. 5.(Stock Breeding) One of the commen live stock of a region of no particular breed or not of pure breed, esp. when inferior in size, etc. [U.S.] Scrub bird (Zoöl.), an Australian passerine bird of the family Atrichornithidæ, as Atrichia clamosa; -- called also brush bird. -- Scrub oak (Bot.), the popular name of several dwarfish species of oak. The scrub oak of New England and the Middle States is Quercus ilicifolia, a scraggy shrub; that of the Southern States is a small tree (Q. Catesbæi); that of the Rocky Mountain region is Q. undulata, var. Gambelii. -- Scrub robin (Zoöl.), an Australian singing bird of the genus Drymodes.
  5. 6.Mean; dirty; contemptible; scrubby. How solitary, how scrub, does this town lokk! Walpole. No little scrub joint shall come on my board. Swift. Scrub game, a game, as of ball, by unpracticed players. -- Scrub race, a race between scrubs, or between untrained animals or contestants.

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