rub in
Third Person
rubs in
Present Participle
rubbing in
Past Tense
rubbed in
Past Participle
rubbed in
1
to insistently bring up a sensitive topic in conversation, causing discomfort to the person being discussed
- Please avoid rubbing in the embarrassing incident from last night; he's embarrassed enough as it is.
- It's essential not to rub in her failures; she's going through a tough time.
- I didn't mean to rub in the painful memory, but it came up in our conversation.
- She decided to rub his mistakes in during the argument.
- I made a mistake - you don't have to rub it in.
2
to combine fats and dry ingredients, typically flour, using a rubbing motion with the fingers or a pastry blender
- To make a flaky pie crust, you should rub in the cold butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.
- The recipe calls for rubbing the butter into the flour until the mixture is crumbly before adding milk to make the dough.
- For a crumbly topping on a fruit cobbler, you can rub in some sugar and butter into the oats and flour.
- In this pastry recipe, you'll need to rub the fat into the flour until the mixture has a sandy texture before adding water to form the dough.