Brillo pad
1
3.7
- noun
- /ˈbrɪloʊ pæd/
- US
:
esponja Brillo
- They give me my Brillo pads and I was scrub, scrub, scrub, scrub.
Examples
-
A Brillo pad.
Fiction book (1996) -
You know, if you put that Brillo pad in the freezer, it'll last twice as long.
Fiction book (1990) -
- A Brillo pad, anything.
-
An officer at the next desk is using a Brillo pad to clean a stain on her desk.
Fiction book (1990) -
Brillo pad, puffball, poodle-head.
-
He noticed a layer of grime on the sill of the kitchen window and attacked it with Ajax and a Brillo pad.
Fiction book (1998) -
I walked to the sink and stoppered it, then turned on the kitchen faucet, squirting Ivory into the steamy water and rinsing off a rusty Brillo pad.
Fiction book (1994) -
She scrubbed the burnt residue off the pan using a Brillo pad.
-
To clean the stubborn stain on the counter, I reached for a Brillo pad.
-
After dinner, he used a Brillo pad to remove the grease from the pots.
Synonyms
1
3.1
A small rough scrubber used to clean pots and pans to remove stuck food
1
3.2
A small cleaning tool of thin metal threads used to remove dirt or smooth surfaces
1
3.0
A small rough pad with soap used to scrub pans and dishes
A small flat piece of cloth or sponge that you use to rub dirt off surfaces like a stove
How Abrasive
Surface Forms
Morphology
Brillo + pad
“Brillo” is a proprietary brand name (not a descriptive English lexical item), so its specific sense as an abrasive steel‑wool cleaning product is not derivable from the constituents. A B1 learner who knows only the generic word “pad” cannot predict the product’s abrasive/metallic nature from the parts alone, making the expression opaque without prior exposure.
Etymology
The name Brillo pad comes from an old brand that sold small metal scrubbers with soap. You rubbed the rough pad on a dirty pan to make it 'shine', so Brillo suggested brightness and that's why Brillo pad now means a small metal scrubber used for tough cleaning.