brush
50
3.9
- noun
- /brʌʃ/
:
roce
- There's nothing like a brush with death to make you realize what the important things in life are.
- a brush with death
- a brush with the law
I'll just say, but I do think it was a brush with mortality, brush with death.
- I'll just say, but I do think it was a brush with mortality, brush with death.
- So that was my first brush with like, you know, powerful people on drugs.
- So we landed and went back to the Pegasus Hotel after our brush with death.
- So it's like pretty much all of us have had some kind of brush with somebody like that for sure.
Examples
-
How was your brush with death?
-
This isn't exactly your first brush with this type of incident, is it?
-
So it's like pretty much all of us have had some kind of brush with somebody like that for sure.
-
As we know, there are people who have brushes with death.
-
Meanwhile, back at school, everyone was talking about Tai's brush with death at the mall.
-
It's been my experience that when someone has a brush with death like you experienced today, even their deepest held convictions can change.
-
But the cumulative anxiety of those brushes with death left you habitually fearful.
Fiction book (1990) -
He had a brief brush with fame after his viral video went online.
-
Her brush with the famous author at the book signing left her speechless.
-
After his brush with disappointment in the competition, he vowed to train harder.
Synonyms
61
4.1
A sudden meeting that becomes a fight or argument
22
6.4
A brief unplanned fight between small groups, often during a larger conflict
1
3.7
A light touch when something brushes past you
Idioms
- Informal
2
7.2
Describe people or things in very general ways that ignore important details
- Informal
1
8.7
Unfairly judge a whole group because of one person's actions
Compounds
- Specialized
1
3.7
A brush with short, stiff hairs for cleaning or painting rough surfaces
- Specialized
1
7.0
A painting tool with soft sable hairs that makes fine, flexible points
- Specialized
1
5.1
A way of painting that uses very little paint to make a rough, scratchy texture
1
1.6
A small brush that you use to put cream or soap on your face before using a razor
- Specialized
A faint blue electric glow with many thin light rays that appears when high voltage makes a spark
- Australian
A small or medium animal like a kangaroo that lives in forests and thick bushes
- Australian
A large black bird that builds big nesting mounds in the woods of Australia and New Guinea
- Specialized
A medium to large butterfly with bright wings and small front legs not used for walking
- Specialized
A large animal with sharp spines and a brush of stiff hairs at the end of its tail
- Australian
A small animal from Australia and New Guinea that lives in trees and has a pouch and a bushy tail
- Specialized
A rodent with a brush of stiff, bead-like hairs at the tip of its tail
- US
A spreading evergreen shrub with small flowers that grows on dry hills in the southwestern United States
- US
A shrub with thin hairy branches and bright yellow flowers that smells nice and grows on western plains
- Specialized
A long thin paint brush used for painting very fine lines like the ropes on a ship
A tree from Mexico and Guatemala with dense hairy flowers that look like brushes at branch ends
How Serious
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word brush meaning a short fight or close call comes from the image of a quick touch or pass, so a 'brush' with trouble or the law is a brief, minor encounter.