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Reader question: Please explain "scrubs" in this sentence: Trump's enemies are scrubs. My comments: Donald Trump, that is, President of the United States. Trump will say something like that, that all his enemies are scrubs, or lowlife, or losers or failures or scumbags. Maybe not scumbag. That is a long word. Trump likes big words, big and short but not long words. Anyway, Trump is that type of person, you know. He likes to bully and belittle other people, especially women. He likes to brag about the fact that he's the president and "you are not". "I'm rich" is also something on his lips quite a lot. "I have nicer houses...nicer everything." Yeah, sure. Little wonder that Trump's enemies are all scrubs, a derogative term for people who are not good at what they do and therefore are contemptible. Scrubs have the same or similar linguistic roots as shrubs, which are small trees, tree-like bushes, really, tree-like but not as tall and definitely not as magnificent. Not at all. The verb form of scrub is the action by which we clean, say, the bath tub. You scrub and scratch to get dirt and old grease off the tub. So, as you may infer, scrub referring to a person also has dirty connotations. Yeah, dirty and insignificant probably sum up the scrub as a person. He or she is not someone you want to associate with. They are not successful in any way and therefore insignificant. They are unimportant. Nobody respects them. | 
