brush

brush vb Brush, graze, glance, shave, skim are comparable when they mean to touch lightly in passing.

Brush implies a movement like the flick of a brush upon a surface: sometimes it suggests no more than an almost impalpable touching, but sometimes it suggests a light touching or rubbing that disperses something that it touches

{

ye tinsel Insects! whom a court maintains .... The Muse's wing shall brush you all away— Pope

}

{

fair dewy roses brush against our faces— Keats

}

{

trees, filled with birds, brushed the roof— Pollet

}

{

their eyes met and brushed like birds' wings— F. S. Fitzgerald

}

Graze implies the swift passage of a bullet or any rapidly moving object so that it touches a person or thing abrading the surface or, in the case of a person, the skin

{

whose solid virtue the shot of accident nor dart of chance could neither graze nor pierce— Shak.

}

{

the bullet grazed the young lady's temple— Scott

}

{

the missile grazed the spot where the shrike sat, and cut the ends of his wings— Burroughs

}

Glance (see also FLASH) basically implies a blow (as from a sword, a spear, or an ax) that owing to the hardness or resistance of what is struck turns aside or slips and so fails of its full effect; hence glance in its participial form glancing is often used to describe such a blow either in its course or effect

{

he struck a glancing blow

}

{

the blow glanced off his shoulder without even jarring him

}

{

the blade glanced, I did but shear a feather— Tennyson

}

Shave implies a touching as lightly and closely as a razor that passes over the face; although it comes near to graze, it carries no implication of abrasion but rather in some contexts suggests a dangerous approach or a narrow escape

{

now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars up to the fiery concave— Milton

}

{

three hansoms shaved him by an inch— Barrie

}

Skim (see also FLY) also implies a light touch in passing

{

kingfishers . . . darted across the water, their wings just skimming the surface— Walden

}

but it never suggests the action of anything (as a bullet, a razor, or a weapon) that is even slightly dangerous; rather it suggests an avoidance of depths by someone or something that touches upon the surface or dips only into shallows

{

skim a book in reading

}

{

am pleased to skim along the surfaces of things— Wordsworth

}

Analogous words: touch, contact (see corresponding nouns at CONTACT): *scatter, disperse, dispel: *slide, slip, glide

brush n skirmish, *encounter

Analogous words: *contest, conflict, combat, fight, fray: engagement, action, *battle: *attack, assault, onset, onslaught