Abstract: A survey of study on wear of metal by polymeric materials at lab and field during the past fourty years is presented. Emphasis has been put on summarizing the wear rate of metal by plastics and rubbers and its influence factors,the physical mechanism of wear of metal by plastics and rubbers and the chemical mechanism of wear of metal by plastics and rubbers.Morever,to counter the current situation and the development prospect of the related research field,some research orientations worthy of attention in future study are pointed out.