Scrub, n. 1. One who labors hard and lives meanly; a mean fellow. “A sorry scrub.” Bunyan.
We should go there in as proper a manner as possible; nor altogether like the scrubs about us. Goldsmith.
2. Something small and mean.
3. A worn-out brush. Ainsworth.
4. A thicket or jungle, often specified by the name of the prevailing plant; as, oak scrub, palmetto scrub, etc.
5. (Stock Breeding) One of the common live stock of a region of no particular breed or not of pure breed, esp. when inferior in size, etc.
Scrub bird(Zoöl.), an Australian passerine bird of the family Atrichornithidæ, as Atrichia clamosa; — called also brush bird. — Scrub oak(Bot.), the popular name of several dwarfish species of oak. The scrub oak of New England and the Middle States is Quercus ilicifolia, a scraggy shrub; that of the Southern States is a small tree (Q. Catesbæi); that of the Rocky Mountain region is Q. undulata, var. Gambelii. — Scrub robin(Zoöl.), an Australian singing bird of the genus Drymodes.