rub

not have two - to rub together have none or hardly any of the specified items, especially coins. informal

2011TechDirt I could go on but if you've got two brain cells to rub together you've got the point by now.

rub of the green the influence of luck, seen as being advantageous or more usually disadvantageous.

☞ The expression originated in the language of golf, where it denotes an accidental interference with the course or position of a ball on the green.

1962Guardian If applications…reached fantastic proportions, the Government would have to consider the matter. 'At present we treat it as a rub of the green.'

rub your hands show keen satisfaction or expectation.

rub someone's nose in something (or rub it in) emphatically or repeatedly draw someone's attention to an embarrassing or painful fact. informal

☞ This expression comes from the mistaken belief that the way to house-train a puppy or kitten is to rub their noses in their faeces or urine if they have made a mess indoors.

1963P. M. HubbardFlush as May I'm sorry. I've said I'm sorry…Don't rub my nose in it.

rub salt into the wound: seesalt.

rub shoulders associate or come into contact with another person.

☞ A US variant of this expression is rub elbows.

1943Graham GreeneThe Ministry of Fear It wasn't exactly a criminal world, though eddying along its dim and muted corridors you might possibly rub shoulders with genteel forgers.

rub someone (up) the wrong way irritate or repel someone.

☞ The image here is of stroking an animal against the lie of its fur.

there's (or here's) the rub that is the crucial difficulty or problem. literary

☞ This expression comes from Shakespeare's Hamlet: 'To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause'. In the game of bowls, a rub is an impediment that prevents a bowl from running smoothly.

2004Cheryl HoltMore than Seduction But there's the rub, you see. I can't be linked to a scandal.