The French saying “se brosser” literally means “to brush yourself.” What it really means is to be obliged to do without something you desire, to make a noise, to rummage around, or even just to wash yourself.

It comes from a French idiom “faire brosse,” which meant to miss or to fail. This dates back to 1808. In 1828, the saying “se brosser le ventre” was recorded as meaning to go without eating. The idea was to rub your belly with your hand while saying this, in an attempt to make the hunger go away.

Eventually, the hunger meaning disappeared and left us with the modern version, which means to go without.

The nearest equivalent English idiom is “to go without.”