1. The act of cleaning a surface by rubbing it with a brush and soap and water
   "Scrubbing the floor tiles restored their original shine";
   - scrub, scouring

1. Clean with hard rubbing
   "She scrubbed his back";
   - scour
    
2. Wash thoroughly
   "surgeons must scrub prior to an operation";
   - scrub up
    
3. [informal] Postpone indefinitely or annul something that was scheduled
   "we had to scrub our vacation plans";
   - cancel, call off, scratch, scrap
    
4. Remove digitally or magnetically recorded information
   "Who scrubbed the files from my hard disk?";
   - erase, delete, wipe

Derived forms: scrubbings

Type of: clean, cleaning, cleansing, cleanup, defer, fish out [informal], hold over, lave, postpone, prorogue, put back, put off, put over, remit, rub, set back, shelve, table [N. Amer], take out, wash

Encyclopedia: Scrubbing