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grub

noun
/ɡɹʌb/

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”).

  1. inherited from grub
  2. derived from *grub-✻ — “to dig”
  3. derived from *grubb-✻
  4. derived from *grubb-✻
  5. inherited from *grubbian✻
  6. inherited from grubben

Definitions

  1. An insect, especially a beetle, at an immature stage of its life cycle.

  2. Food.

    • pub grub
    • "The rice ration's down to nearly damn-all in the kampongs, but we keep finding dumps of grub in the forest."

  3. A dirty person.

  4. ›+ 6 more definitions

    1. A despicable person

      A despicable person; a lowlife.

    2. A short, thick man

      A short, thick man; a dwarf.

      • John Romane, a short clownish grub, would bear the whole carcase of an ox, yet never tugged with him.

    3. To scavenge or in some way scrounge, typically for food.

    4. To dig

      To dig; to dig up by the roots; to root out by digging; often followed by up.

      • to grub up trees, rushes, or sedge
      • They do not attempt to grub up the root of sin.
      • 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.

    5. To supply with food.

    6. To eat.

The neighborhood

Derived

bardee grub, bardi grub, bardy grub, canegrub, cattle grub, curl grub, grass grub, grub and bub, grubber, grubbery, grubble, grubby, grub hoe, grubhouse, grubless, grublike, grubling, grub out, grub-saw, grub screw, grubstake, grub-stake, grub up, grubwork, grubworm, pub grub, Tasmanian grass grub, witchety grub, grub along

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for grub. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA