An impediment. The expression is taken from bowls, where “rub” means that something hinders the free movement of your bowl.
“Without rub or interruption.”—Swift.
“Like a bowle that runneth in a smooth allie, without anie rub.”—Stanihurst, p. 10.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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