have a brush with (something)
To encounter, or nearly encounter, someone or something. I had a brush with death when I was in that car accident. Oh, you'll have a brush with the law sooner or later if you keep robbing houses. A: "Is it true that Hailey had a brush with death in the library today?" B: "Ugh, she's so dramatic. She just fell down some stairs, that's all."
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
have a brush with something
to have a brief contact with something; to have an experience with something. (Especially with the law. Sometimes a close brush.) Ann had a close brush with the law. She was nearly arrested for speeding. When I was younger, I hada brush with scarlet fever, but I got over it.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
have a brush with
Have an encounter or come in conflict with, as in This was not the first time that Bob had a brush with the law. This expression alludes to the noun brush in the sense of "a hostile collision," a usage dating from about 1400.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.