grub
verbEtymology
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”).
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
- They do not attempt to grub up the root of sin.1846, Julius Hare, The Mission of the Comforter:
1 more example
- 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.[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:
- “[…] 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!”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:
- Derived terms
- grub along
- Related terms
- grade-grub, grave, groove