GRUB • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Grub

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/grəb/ Listen

noun

Grub n.

1.

(Zool.) The larva of an insect, especially of a beetle; called also grubworm. See Illust. of Goldsmith beetle, under Goldsmith. "Yet your butterfly was a grub."

2.

A short, thick man; a dwarf. (Obs.)

3.

Victuals; food. (Slang)

Grub ax or Grub axe, a kind of mattock used in grubbing up roots, etc.

Grub breaker. Same as Grub hook (below).

Grub hoe, a heavy hoe for grubbing.

Grub hook, a plowlike implement for uprooting stumps, breaking roots, etc.

Grub saw, a handsaw used for sawing marble.

Grub Street, a street in London (now called Milton Street), described by Dr. Johnson as "much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems, whence any mean production is called grubstreet." As an adjective, suitable to, or resembling the production of, Grub Street. "I 'd sooner ballads write, and grubstreet lays."

verb

Grub v. t.

1.

To dig; to dig up by the roots; to root out by digging; followed by up; as, to grub up trees, rushes, or sedge. "They do not attempt to grub up the root of sin."

2.

To supply with food. (Slang)

Grub v. i. (past & past part. grubbed, pres. part. grubbing)

1.

To dig in or under the ground, generally for an object that is difficult to reach or extricate; to be occupied in digging.

2.

To drudge; to do menial work.

See images of 'Grub'

Etymology of 'Grub'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Grub" Quotes from Famous Books

... it from beef, except that the shorter grain makes it tenderer; for the bear lives on the best products of the forest. He'll sit on his haunches before a serviceberry tree, bend the branches with his paws, and eat off the red fruit wholesale. He'll grub with his claws for the bear potatoes, and chew them like tobacco. He'll pick the kernels out of nuts, and help himself to your maize and fall wheat when you have them, as well as to your sucking ...

— Cedar Creek - From the Shanty to the Settlement • Elizabeth Hely Walshe

... spirits, the silent mood gone. Before eight o'clock old Punk had the camp to himself, Cathcart and Hank were far along the trail that led westwards, while the canoe that carried Defago and Simpson, with silk tent and grub for two days, was already a dark speck bobbing on the bosom of the lake, ...

— The Wendigo • Algernon Blackwood

... concerning that popular and scathing personage Mr Pasquin. By May the company styled themselves "Pasquin's Company of Comedians"; a fresh indication of the credit attaching to the performance. In the previous month a contributor to The Grub Street Journal tells "Dear Grub" that he has seen Pope applauding the piece; and, although the statement was promptly denied, a rare print by Hogarth lends some colour to a very likely story; for the great Mr Pope, the terror ...

— Henry Fielding: A Memoir • G. M. Godden

... danger! The apple-weevil appears upon the scene. It, too, has to maintain life and to fulfil a duty towards its progeny. The grub eats its way through the fruit to the stem and the apple falls to the ground. But the dainty beetle chooses the strongest and soundest for its brood, otherwise too many of the strong ones would be allowed to live, and competition would ...

— Married • August Strindberg

... You bet Mr. Arledge would 'a' got my decision right hot off the griddle. I'd 'a' told him, 'You're the meanest kind of a crook I ever heard of fur wantin' to lie down on your fat back and whine out of payin' fur the grub you put in your big gander paunch,' I'd tell him, 'and now you march to the lock-up till you can look honest folks in the face,' I'd tell him. Say, Billy, some crooks are worse than others. Take Nate Leverson out there. Nate set up night and ...

— The Spenders - A Tale of the Third Generation • Harry Leon Wilson

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