to move along the surface of a body with pressure; grate; To move (one object) while maintaining contact with another object over some area, with pressure and friction. "I rubbed the cloth over the glass." "The cat rubbed itself against my leg."

Maltz recalled a joke about rubbing something backwards and destroying it. The joke was probably funny.

The object of the verb is the surface being rubbed/wiped, as in "I wipe my forehead".

If you use something to rub (like a cloth or your hand), then use the verb lo' with that thing.

If you wipe away something (like sweat from the forehead), use the verb bI' "sweep away".

The request for the verb "rub" included the English term "grate". This is a little confusing and should not be used as part of the definition. One might say that "grate" is similar to "rub", but it surely is not used in the sense of "grate cheese", that would be a different verb. Since the object of the verb is the thing being rubbed, grating cheese only works if the cheese is fixed and being rubbed with some tool.