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grub
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: GRUB and груб
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English grubben, grobben, from Old English *grubbian, from Proto-West Germanic *grubb-, from Proto-Germanic *grubb- (compare Middle Dutch grobben (“to scrape, scramble, grab”), Old High German grubilōn (“to dig, search”), German grübeln (“to meditate, ponder”)), from Proto-Germanic *grub- (“to dig”) (see *grabaną).
The noun sense of "larva" is from Middle English grub, grubbe, grobbe, crubbe and may derive from the notion of "digging insect" from the verb above, or from the uncertainly related Middle English grub (“dwarfish fellow”). Compare West Frisian krobbe (“beetle”). The slang sense of "food" is first recorded 1659, and has been linked with birds eating grubs or with bub (“drink”).
Pronunciation
Noun
grub (countable and uncountable, plural grubs)
- (countable) An insect, especially a beetle, at an immature stage of its life cycle.
- Synonym: larva
- (uncountable, slang) Food.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:food
- pub grub
- 1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 298:
- "The rice ration's down to nearly damn-all in the kampongs, but we keep finding dumps of grub in the forest."
- (Australia, slang) A dirty person.
- (Australia, slang) A despicable person; a lowlife.
- (obsolete) A short, thick man; a dwarf.
- 1609, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall, London: […] S[imon] S[tafford] for Iohn Iaggard, […], →OCLC:
- John Romane, a short clownish grub, would bear the whole carcase of an ox, yet never tugged with him.
Derived terms
Translations
immature insect
|
slang: food
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also
Verb
grub (third-person singular simple present grubs, present participle grubbing, simple past and past participle grubbed)
- To scavenge or in some way scrounge, typically for food.
- (ambitransitive) To dig; to dig up by the roots; to root out by digging; often followed by up.
- to grub up trees, rushes, or sedge
- 1846, Julius Hare, The Mission of the Comforter:
- They do not attempt to grub up the root of sin.
- [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:
- Yet there was no time to be lost if I was ever to get out alive, and so I groped with my hands against the side of the grave until I made out the bottom edge of the slab, and then fell to grubbing beneath it with my fingers.
- (slang, dated, transitive) To supply with food.
- (slang, dated) To eat.
- 1864 May – 1865 November, Charles Dickens, “Concerning the Mendicant’s Bride”, in Our Mutual Friend. […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1865, →OCLC, 4th book (A Turning), page 202:
- “[…] John dear, we must give this little fellow his supper, you know.”
“Of course we must, my darling.”
“He has been grubbing and grubbing at school,” said Bella, looking at her father’s hand and lightly slapping it, “till he’s not fit to be seen. O what a grubby child!”
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
scavenge or scrounge
Anagrams
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German
Pronunciation
Verb
grub
Indonesian
Etymology
From the confusion of final voiced consonants with voiceless ones (final obstruent devoicing does exist in Indonesian), or reinforced by some grammatical forms of Turkish grup (e.g. grubu, grubun, etc.) Compare nonstandard Azerbaijani qrub (instead of qrup).
Noun
grub
- nonstandard form of grup
Serbo-Croatian
Etymology
Inherited from Proto-Slavic *grǫbъ.
Pronunciation
Adjective
grȗb (Cyrillic spelling гру̑б, definite grȗbī, comparative grȕbljī)
Declension
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