rugburn

English

Alternative forms

• rug burn, rug-burn

Etymology

rug +‎ burn

Noun

rugburn (countable and uncountable, plural rugburns)

1. (countable) A painful burn or redness of skin, especially on knees, elbows, and hands, from repetitive friction against a rug or similar surface.
   • 2019 August 13, “A Pueblo center for troubled kids had 243 abuse allegations in the year before it closed”, in The Colorado Sun‎^[1]:

     The ombudsman found that youth living at El Pueblo remained under the care and supervision of staff who had been accused of abusing them. In one case, a youth was reportedly dragged across the carpet by two staff members, resulting in rugburns on his face.

   • 2021, Adam Levin, Bubblegum, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 9:

     The rugburn became increasingly inflamed, and, through trembling lips, which were pursed as if to whistle, my cure began singing its sublime, plaintive painsong.

2. (uncountable) Rugburns in general.
   • 2004, Robert Voedisch, Zamboni Blues:

     Like, seriously, thanks for the music. It's meant a lot. […] Your lead's hotter than rugburn.

   • 2019 November 8, Dwight Garner, “From Nabokov and Lawrence, Giants of 20th-Century Fiction, New Volumes of Nonfiction”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     His writing about the shattering nature of syphilis is both devastating and a bit sly. "You could joke with the word 'pox,'" he wrote. "You can’t joke with the word 'syphilis.'" Reading Lawrence’s writing about sex, in general, leaves you suspecting that he walked around with perpetual rugburn.

Derived terms

• Indian rugburn

 

Verb

rugburn (third-person singular simple present rugburns, present participle rugburning, simple past and past participle rugburned)

1. (transitive) To cause a rugburn to form.
   • 2010, John Lindo, Collegiate Maneuvers, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 174:

     Every time I rugburned my knees, every time some morbidly obese man fondled me as if I were his mindless property, my distaste for the job deepened.

   • 2014, Keith Melton, Dark Ride Dogs, Etopia Press, →ISBN:

     The threadbare red and gold carpeting rugburned his cheek, but he rolled over at once and kicked the door shut.

   • 2021, Mr. J, The Stories You Ignore, AuthorHouse, →ISBN:

     The remaining residents cringed at the sight of Trayer's face; the left side of his cheek had been severely rugburned.