Definition of "rub down" []

• To rub, e.g. for cleaning, stripping paint or massage (verb)

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• "But education, which we speak of as a panacea for all ills, only deals with what it finds, and does not, as we ought to claim, rub down bad points and accentuate good, and it is this, that perhaps more than anything else has made me a Determinist, that the very capacity for change and improvement is so native to some characters, and so utterly lacking to others."
• "The day before the fire, Forni said, electricians finished their work and the cleanup crew used turpentine and linseed oil to clean and rub down the redwood paneling and other wooden fixtures in preparation for the move-in the next day."