brush

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
brush1

▶noun

• 1 an implement with a handle and a block of bristles, hair, or wire, used for cleaning, smoothing, or painting.

  ■ an act of brushing.

• 2 a slight and fleeting touch.

  ■ a brief encounter with something bad or unwelcome: a brush with death.

• 3 the bushy tail of a fox.

• 4 (usu. brushes) a drumstick with long wire bristles, used to make a soft hissing sound.

• 5 a piece of carbon or metal serving as an electrical contact with a moving part in a motor or alternator.

• 6 Austral./NZ informal girls or women regarded sexually.

▶verb

• 1 clean, smooth, or apply with a brush.

• 2 touch or push lightly and gently.

• 3 (brush someone/thing off) dismiss someone or something in an abrupt, contemptuous way.

• 4 (brush up on or brush something up) work to regain a previously learned skill.

– derivatives
brushless adjective (chiefly technical),
brushy adjective.

– origin ME: noun from OFr. broisse; verb partly from OFr. brosser ‘to sweep’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
brush2

▶noun chiefly N. Amer. & Austral./NZ undergrowth, small trees, and shrubs.

■ N. Amer. cut brushwood.

■ Austral./NZ dense forest.

– origin ME: from OFr. broce, perh. based on L. bruscum, denoting an excrescence on a maple.