Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary полностью

5 VERB If one thing brushes against another or if you brush one thing against another, the first thing touches the second thing lightly while passing it. □ [V prep] Something brushed against her leg. □ [V n] I felt her dark brown hair brushing the back of my shoulder. □ [V n prep] She knelt and brushed her lips softly across Michael's cheek.

6 VERB If you brush past someone or brush by them, you almost touch them as you go past them. [WRITTEN ] □ [V prep/adv] My father would burst into the kitchen, brushing past my mother.

7 N‑COUNT If you have a brush with someone, you have an argument or disagreement with them. You use brush when you want to make an argument or disagreement sound less serious than it really is. [VAGUENESS ] □ [+ with ] My first brush with a headmaster came six years ago. □ [+ with ] It is his third brush with the law in less than a year.

8 N‑COUNT If you have a brush with a particular situation, usually an unpleasant one, you almost experience it. □ [+ with ] …the trauma of a brush with death. □ [+ with ] The corporation is fighting to survive its second brush with bankruptcy.

9 N‑UNCOUNT Brush is an area of rough open land covered with small bushes and trees. You also use brush to refer to the bushes and trees on this land. □  …the brush fire that destroyed nearly 500 acres. □  …a meadow of low brush and grass.

10 → see also broad-brush , nail brush

11tarred with the same brush → see tar

▸  brush aside or brush away PHRASAL VERB If you brush aside or brush away an idea, remark, or feeling, you refuse to consider it because you think it is not important or useful, even though it may be. □ [V n P ] Perhaps you shouldn't brush the idea aside too hastily. □ [V P n] He brushed away my views on politics.

▸  brush up or brush up on PHRASAL VERB If you brush up something or brush up on it, you practise it or improve your knowledge of it. □ [V P n] I had hoped to brush up my Spanish. □ [V P P n] Eleanor spent much of the summer brushing up on her driving.

brushed /brʌ ʃt/ ADJ [ADJ n] Brushed cotton, nylon, or other fabric feels soft and furry.

bru sh-off N‑SING If someone gives you the brush-off when you speak to them, they refuse to talk to you or be nice to you. [INFORMAL ] □  I wanted to keep in touch, but when I called him he gave me the brush-off.

brush|stroke /brʌ ʃstroʊk/ (brushstrokes ) N‑COUNT Brushstrokes are the marks made on a surface by a painter's brush. □  He paints with harsh, slashing brushstrokes.

brush|wood /brʌ ʃwʊd/ N‑UNCOUNT Brushwood consists of small pieces of wood that have broken off trees and bushes.

brush|work /brʌ ʃwɜː ^r k/ N‑UNCOUNT An artist's brushwork is their way of using their brush to put paint on a canvas and the effect that this has in the picture. □  … the texture of the artist's brushwork.

brusque /brʌ sk/ ADJ If you describe a person or their behaviour as brusque , you mean that they deal with things, or say things, quickly and shortly, so that they seem to be rude. □  The doctors are brusque and busy. □  They received a characteristically brusque reply from him. ●  brusque|ly ADV [ADV with v] □  'It's only a sprain,' Paula said brusquely.

brus|sels sprout /brʌ səlz spraʊ t/ (brussels sprouts ) also Brussels sprout N‑COUNT [usu pl] Brussels sprouts are vegetables that look like tiny cabbages.

bru|tal /bruː t ^ə l/