He rubbed fiercely at his eye.

Leland rubbed at his eyes fiercely.

Rubbing fiercely, she wiped her face clean.

He lowered his head, rubbing fiercely between his eyes as he grimaced.

I rubbed a hand fiercely across my cheeks, and then snapped my fingers for Linn to come.

Sticking her fingers in her ears, she rubbed fiercely.

She rubbed fiercely at one [*copygg'ye, fighting tears.

In point of fact, he rarely ceased from rubbing them, and sometimes, as their numbness increased, he rubbed fiercely.

Christopher wriggled around on his lap, rubbing fiercely at his eyes.

Yet it only rarely creates that electric friction, the sense of words' rubbing fiercely against each other, that sets off such memorable sparks in the best of Mamet productions.