'Rub of the green' definitions:

Definition of 'Rub of the green'

From: GCIDE

Rub \Rub\, n. [Cf. W. rhwb. See Rub, v,t,]
1. The act of rubbing; friction. [1913 Webster]
2. That which rubs; that which tends to hinder or obstruct motion or progress; hindrance; obstruction, an impediment; especially, a difficulty or obstruction hard to overcome; a pinch. [1913 Webster]
Every rub is smoothed on our way. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
To sleep, perchance to dream; ay, there's the rub. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
Upon this rub, the English ambassadors thought fit to demur. --Hayward. [1913 Webster]
One knows not, certainly, what other rubs might have been ordained for us by a wise Providence. --W. Besant. [1913 Webster]
3. Inequality of surface, as of the ground in the game of bowls; unevenness. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
4. Something grating to the feelings; sarcasm; joke; as, a hard rub. [1913 Webster]
5. Imperfection; failing; fault. [Obs.] --Beau. & Fl. [1913 Webster]
6. A chance. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
Flight shall leave no Greek a rub. --Chapman. [1913 Webster]
7. A stone, commonly flat, used to sharpen cutting tools; a whetstone; -- called also rubstone. [1913 Webster]
Rub iron, an iron guard on a wagon body, against which a wheel rubs when cramped too much.
Rub of the green (Golf), anything happening to a ball in motion, such as its being deflected or stopped by any agency outside the match, or by the fore caddie. [1913 Webster + Webster 1913 Suppl.]