rub along

1. 1.

   manage one's existence barely

   “I guess I can squeeze by on this lousy salary”

   Synonymsscrape alongscrape byscratch alongsqueak bysqueeze by

   Broadercope

Questions about rub along

What does rub along mean?

rub along means "manage one's existence barely".

What is another word for rub along?

Close synonyms include scrape along, scrape by, scratch along, squeak by, squeeze by. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is rub along a common word?

rub along is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.