Scrub n.
1. One who labors hard and lives meanly; a mean fellow. “A sorry scrub.”
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.
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. [U.S.]
6. Vegetation of inferior quality, though sometimes thick and impenetrable, growing in poor soil or in sand; also, brush; -- called also scrub brush. See Brush, above. [Australia & South Africa]
7. Forestry A low, straggling tree of inferior quality.
Scrub bird Zool., an Australian passerine bird of the family Atrichornithidae, 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 (Quercus Catesbaei); that of the Rocky Mountain region is Quercus undulata, var. Gambelii.
Scrub robin Zool., an Australian singing bird of the genus Drymodes.
scrub bird
n : small fast-running Australian bird resembling a wren and
frequenting brush or scrub [syn: scrubbird, scrub-bird]