| 释义 |
▪ I. grub, n.|grʌb|
Forms: 5 grobbe, grubbe, 7 grubb, 6– grub.
[? f. grub v.]
1. The larva of an insect, esp. of a beetle; a caterpillar, maggot; also (now dial.), a worm.
c1420Pallad. on Husb. vii. 63 Benys..vpplucked sone, maad clene, and sette vp wel refrigerate, ffrom grobbis saaf wol kepe vp their estate. 1486Bk. St. Albans A iv, If the frounce be wex as greete as a note Than ther is a grubbe ther in. a1500Chester Pl. (E.E.T.S.) vii. 227 The dirte is so deepe..and the grubbs thereon doe creepe. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. v. iii. 126 What Torch is yond that vainley lends his light To grubs, and eyelesse Sculles? 1607― Cor. v. iv. 11–12 There is differency between a Grub & a Butterfly; yet your Butterfly was a Grub. a1653G. Daniel Idyll iii. 169 The World's an Ant-hill, and the little Grubbs Stocke themselves warme. 1664Power Exp. Philos. i. 28 That Spumeous froth or dew which..we call Cuckow-Spittle,..in which you shall always find a little Grub, or Animal. 1669Phil. Trans. IV. 914 He affirms, that Timber-trees fell'd, when the wind is in the West,..will keep them free from grubs, (as they call it) i.e. from being worm-eaten. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 204/1 The Grub is a general term for the smaller worms that breed in the Earth. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VIII. 63 The history of grubs changing into their corresponding winged animals. 1784Cowper Task v. 90 The very rooks and daws forsake the fields, Where neither grub, nor root, nor earth⁓nut, now Repays their labour more. 1796C. Marshall Garden. xv. (1813) 242 Those lettuces in the open ground are often destroyed by grubs lurking about the roots. 1859R. Thompson Gardener's Assist. 571 The grub of another insect (Byturus tomentosus) is very frequently found in the fruit. 1883Encycl. Amer. I. 138/2 The White Grub (Lachnosterna fusca Froh.)..is the larva of the well⁓known ‘May-bug’ or ‘June-bug’. 1887S. Cheshire Gloss., Grub, any kind of worm except the largest.
fig.1837Macaulay Ess., Bacon (1880) 356 He was now in a chrysalis state, putting off the worm and putting on the dragon-fly, a kind of intermediate grub between sycophant and oppressor. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge xl, He..knelt down a grub, and rose a butterfly. John Chester, Esquire, was knighted and became Sir John.
2. contemptuous.
†a. A short, dwarfish fellow.
a1400–50Alexander 1753 And slike a dwinyng, a dwaȝe, & a dwerȝe as þi-selfe, A grub [Dubl. MS. grob], a grege out of grace. 1602Carew Cornwall 63 John Romaine, a short clownish grub, would beare the whole carkase of an oxe, and yet neuer tugged with him. 1611Cotgr., Rabougri,..a grub, counterfeit, short or short-necked crooke-backe. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Grub, a Dwarf, or short Fellow.
b. A person of mean abilities, a dull industrious drudge, a literary hack; in recent use, a person of slovenly attire and unpleasant manners.
1653Urquhart Rabelais i. Prol. 6 So saith a Turlupin or a new start-up grub of my books. 1748Smollett Rod. Rand. xxx. (1804) 198 This miserable grub [the captain's clerk] who had been an attorney's boy. 1771― Humph. Cl. 10 June, A dull author generally distinguishes himself by some oddity or extravagance. For this reason, I fancy that an assembly of Grubs must be very diverting. 1796M. Robinson Angelina I. 71 Is it not a scandal to humanity that such an illiterate grub as Sir Edward should feed on all the luxuries of life? 1838De Quincey Shaks. Wks. (1863) XV. 7 Mr. Nahum Tate:—This poor grub of literature. 1896Du Maurier Martian (1898) 390 Clubs have a way of blackballing grubs—especially grubs that are out of the common grubby.
†c. ? A money-grubber. Obs. [Cf. Du. dial. (Gelderland) grobbe in the same sense.]
a1681J. Lacy Sauny the Scot iv. (1698) 31 'Tis the Old Grub, Woodall. What shall we do with him?
d. dial. A small dirty child.
a1845Hood Clubs iii, The Cook's a hasher—nothing more—The Children noisy grubs. 1888Berksh. Gloss. s.v., A dirty little child is called ‘a young grub’.
e. U.S. A hard-reading student.
1847D. A. Wells & S. H. Davis Sk. Williams College 76 A man must not be ashamed to be called a ‘grub’ in college, if he would shine in the world. 1851B. H. Hall College Words, Grub, a hard student. Williams College.
†3.
a. (See quot. 1706 and cf. maggot.) Obs.
1681Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 42 (1713) II. 22, I thought my Song might have removed your Grubs; but I see some Marks still of Melancholy upon you. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Grub,..a capricious Humour or Whimsey.
b. Phr. to ride grub, be up a grub (dial.): to be sulky or bad-tempered. (Cf. grubby 4.)
1785Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue s.v., To ride grub, to be sullen or out of temper. 1840Spurdens Suppl. to Forby (1858) 20 ‘To be up a grub’, ‘to ride grub’, is to be out of temper, morose. [Cf.1847–78Halliwell s.v., The grubs bite him hard, i.e. he is sulky. East.]
4. (See quots.)
1731Bailey vol. II, Grubbs..a kind of white, unctuous, little pimples or tumours, rising on the face, chiefly on the Alæ of the nose. 1833in Cycl. Pract. Med. I. 27/2 They [pimples of acne follicularis] are commonly known by the name of..grubs.
5. Cricket. A ball bowled along the ground.
1870Baily's Mag. Sports Aug. 355 Nor did we ever before see a species of underhand bowling, known to schoolboys as ‘grubs’, made use of in the crack match of the year. 1882Australians in England 92 The latter bowls left-handed ‘grubs’ of the most pronounced description. 1894Sir J. D. Astley 50 Years Life I. 63 We had a private who could bowl fast left-hand grubs. 1896Blackw. Mag. Apr. 581 Abe Hollo well bowled really good grubs on occasion.
6. slang.
a. Food or provender of any kind. Colloq. phrs.: grub up!, the food is ready; time to eat!; lovely grub, good food; also transf.
1659Anc. Poems, Ball., etc. (Percy Soc.) 22 Let's joyne together; I'le pass my word this night Shall yield us grub, before the morning light. 1691Pol. Ballads (1860) II. 20 This weasel..to get him some grub,..and a little good bub. 1781G. Parker View Society I. xxii. 171 How did you procure your Grub and Bub? 1813P. Hawker Diary (1893) I. 68 The boys..finished the evening with some prime grub, swizzle, and singing. 1833Marryat P. Simple (1863) 147 How you'll relish your grub by and by! 1880E. FitzGerald Lett. (1889) I. 456, I and my Reader Boy were going into the Pantry for some grub. 1889‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms (1890) 177 We had brought some grub with us and a bottle of grog. 1953‘R. Gordon’ Doctor at Sea xiv. 165 All the way down—Miss, Miss, Miss. Lovely grub! 1957E. Taylor Angel v. i. 220 We're here, madam. Grub up! 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. ix. 161 Cries of jubilation include..Lovely grub!
b. A feed.
1857Hughes Tom Brown i. vii, Twice as good a grub as we should have got in the hall.
7. U.S. A root left in the ground after clearing.
1788Washington Diary 20 Feb. (1925) III. 306 At Muddy hole they were..taking up grubs in the Winter fallow of No. 4. 1825J. Lorain Pract. Husb. 334 The Yankee farmer first chops the fallen timber, then scalps off the grubs level with the ground. 1839C. M. Kirkland New Home xx. 133 Grubs are, in western parlance, the gnarled roots of small trees and shrubs. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Grubber, a machine or tool to pull grubs; that is, stumps and roots of bushes, saplings, and small trees. 1888Sci. Amer. 21 Apr. 247 The John Cornelius Grub and Stump Puller.
8. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 1) grub-destroyer, grub-destroying, grub-hunter, grub-hunting, grub-skin; grub-like adj.; (sense 6) grub-box, grub-shop, grub-wagon; grub-kick Rugby Football, = grubber 6; hence as v. intr.; grub-plank U.S., ‘refuse plank used in fastening together the parts of a lumber-raft’ (Cent. Dict.); grub-screw, a screw without a head but with a recess at one end to receive a screwdriver or key; grub-stake U.S. Mining slang, ‘the outfit, provisions, etc. furnished to a prospector on condition of participating in the profits of any find he may make; a lay-out’ (Ibid.); also transf.; hence grub-stake vb. trans., to furnish with grub-stake; also transf.; grub-staker, a prospector who is supplied with a grub-stake, or the supplier of a grub-stake; grub-worm = sense 1, also contemptuous.
1887J. Farrell How He Died 68 There's not much in the *grub-box, but I've never turned a man off without a feed.
1894R. B. Sharpe Handbk. Birds Gt. Brit. (1896) I. 26 Its [the starling's] good deeds as a *grub-destroyer are apt to be forgotten.
1863Atkinson Stanton Grange 78 Anybody would have mentioned the sparrow as a worker at *grub⁓destroying.
1797Wolcot (P. Pindar) Ode to Sir J. Banks Wks. 1812 III. 459 The King of Men May make the Knight a *grub-hunter agen And bid him mind his butterflies and hammer.
1870Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i (1873) 320 The regular occupation of *grub-hunting is as tame and wearisome as another.
1951Rugger Dec. 5 He uses the *grub kick so much favoured by Northern Union players. 1959Times 6 Mar. 16/2 Elliot and Patterson engineered a try at the posts for the latter from a grub kick by Horrocks-Taylor. 1960Times 4 Jan. 4/3 Tolson grub-kicked ahead.
1882–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) II. 54 A *grub-like concretion of mucus. 1874Lubbock Orig. & Met. Ins. i. 18 Apod grub-like larvae.
1903Jrnl. Inst. Electr. Engin. XXXII. 384 It is..becoming quite common..to fasten the armature connection to the commutator segment by means of steel *grub screws. 1930Engineering 26 Dec. 815/2 The terminals..are fixed by a grub screw.
1840Thackeray Barber Cox in Comic Almanack 25 ‘That's the *grub-shop’, said my lord, ‘where we young gentlemen wot has money buys our wittles, and them young gentlemen wot has none, goes tick’.
1849Hare Serm. II. 76 You are not to..furl up your wings, and wrap yourself up in your cast-off *grub-skin.
1863H. Edgar Jrnl. 27 May in Montana Hist. Soc. Contrib. (1900) III. 138 ‘A *grub stake is what we are after’ was our watchword all day, and it is one hundred and fifty dollars in good dust. 1885Butterworth Zig-zag Journ. West. States 309 What is roughly termed a ‘grub stake’. 1895Forum (N.Y.) June 475 The prospector with his led horse, loaded with grub⁓stake, blankets, pick, and pan. 1932Atlantic Monthly Mar. 322/1 The farmer realizes the..plight of the out-of-work who..is left without a grub⁓stake between himself and hunger. 1947V. Palmer Golconda ii. 10 We'd been out for six months on a grubstake from the store here, looking for mica. 1957Times 12 Nov. (Canada Suppl.) p. xi/4 The prospector can no longer look forward to making his fortune with a ‘grubstake’ of a few hundred dollars. 1968R. M. Patterson Finlay's River 96 On the Ingenika itself three prospectors were making at least a good grubstake: they finally took out seventy ounces of gold.
1879Chicago Tribune 15 May 9/6 Judge Pendery, a former Congressman, politician, and lawyer, has been *grubstaking a party of miners who were digging a shaft down near the base of the hill. 1890Gunter Miss Nobody ix. 100 He grub-staked us and we used to work on the Tillie mine together. 1919W. A. Fraser Bulldog Carney 38 I'm goin' to grubstake you,..leave you rations for three days. 1937Partridge Dict. Slang 358/1 Grub-stake, to give (an author) money to keep him going while he writes a book. 1947L. Hastings Dragons are Extra i. 30 Grub-staked by some optimistic colleague in town, they could be found at every wayside pub. 1959Economist 21 Mar. 1073/2 For over seven years, from 1951, soon after the Korean outbreak, until mid-1958, the federal government in effect ‘grubstaked’ owners of promising deposits of strategic minerals. 1965G. McInnes Road to Gundagai x. 176 A..dentist whose son Ian..had been grubstaked to Wembley hors concours.
1880A. A. Hayes New Colorado (1881) vii. 107 Here does the whilom *grub⁓staker and present millionaire purchase his corner lot. 1897A. C. Harris Alaska & Klondike Gold Fields 444 A grub-staker is a man who wants someone to stake him with grub, and ‘grub’ is Klondike for beans, bacon and tea. 1898J. Grinnell Gold Hunting in Alaska (1901) xii. 45 We may have to foot it home just like..prodigal sons who have wasted their substance and that of our grub⁓stakers in ‘riotous living’. 1926Glasgow Herald 8 Mar. 10 But the grub-staker who is financed by some wealthy man and will share his discoveries with his backer, is in the fortunate position of having enough money to avoid the dangerous trail. 1969Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 27 Nov. 9/4 The telegram recalled the chamber had recommended..that the prospector and grubstaker tax exemption be maintained in its present form.
1891Fur, Fin & Feather Mar. 150 They take with them a *grub wagon and ten saddle horses, and expect to be absent four months. 1920J. M. Hunter Trail Drivers of Texas 69 We were two miles from the grub wagon.
1752Smart Hilliad i. 115 Moths, mites, and maggots, fleas (a numerous crew), And gnats and *grub-worms crowded on his view. 1807–8W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 134 Giblet was as arrant a grub-worm as ever crawled. 1849C. Brontë Shirley v, My grub-worm is always a straitened, struggling, careworn tradesman. 1966Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xlv. 14 Grubworm, the larva of the Green June Beetle.
Hence grubbed a., infested with grubs; grubbing vbl. n., infestation by grubs.
1843Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. IV. i. 125 When turnips have what is termed a ‘grubbed’ appearance, it has been attributed to the larvæ of these little beetles. 1844Stephens Bk. of Farm II. 591 They [the grub larvæ] attack different kinds of corn, especially oats, the effects of grubbing in which are well known to every farmer. Ibid. 592 Every loose turf clod on a grubbed field of oats.
▪ II. † grub, a. Obs. rare—1.
= grubby a. 3.
1717D'Urfey Pills (1719) II. 315 The Taylor with grub Beard and Crimson Nose.
▪ III. grub, v.|grʌb|
Forms: (4 groube), 4–5 grobbe, 4–6 grube, grubbe, 6– grub.
[Perh. repr. OE. *grybban:—prehistoric *grubbjan, f. OTeut. *gruƀ- ablaut-variant of *graƀ- to dig, grave v.1; cf. ON. gryfja wk. fem. pit, hole, OHG. grubilôn to dig, search (mod.G. grübeln to pursue over-subtle meditations), MDu. grobben (once) to scrape together (money), Du. grobbelen to root, feel about for something. For the phonology cf. stub repr. OE. stybb, shrub repr. OE. scrybb.]
1. trans. To dig superficially; to break up the surface of (the ground); to clear (ground) of roots and stumps. Also with up. Said occas. of animals ‘rooting’.
a1300Cursor M. 6747 Theif hus brecand, or gruband grund. 1572Lament. L. Scotl. in Sc. Poems 16th C. II. 251 Ze suld your ground grube with simplicitie. 1603Florio Montaigne iii. xiii. 635 As the ground the more it is crumbled, broken, and deepely remoued or grubbed vp, becommeth so much more fertile. 1653H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. xxxi. 122 These serve to manure grounds that are newly grubb'd. 1698Froger Voy. 126 Since the Island has been grubbed up, they have begun to grow more healthy. 1786Burns Bard's Epit., Whether thy soul Soars fancy's flights beyond the pole, Or darkling grubs this earthly hole. 1798Malthus Popul. (1817) I. 165 Vast tracts of land lay in their original uncultivated state, having never been grubbed up or cleared. 1827Montgomery Pelican Isl. vi. 275 Like the swine That grubb'd the turf. 1840Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. i. Spectre Tappington, Some workmen employed in grubbing an old plantation. 1869L. A. Meredith Tasman. Mem. 10 A bit of land all grubbed and clear'd too. 1878Browning Poets Croisic 11 Batz whose Saxons grub The ground for crystals.
†2. To dig round the roots of (a plant). Obs.
1387–8T. Usk Test. Love i. v. (Skeat) I. 92 See now how, seven yere passed and more, have I graffed and groubed a vyne; and with al the wayes that I coude I sought to a fed me of the grape. 1513Douglas æneis xiii. ix. 76 Saturne..Tawcht thame to grub the wines,..and saw the cornys, and ȝok the cart.
3. To dig up by the roots, to root up, uproot: esp. with up, less commonly out. Also transf. and fig.
1555–8T. Phaer æneid ii. E iv, Like as on the mountayn top, some auncient oke to fall The plowmen with their axes strong do striue, and twibles tall To grubbe, and round about hath hewd. 1558Bp. Watson Sev. Sacram. xviii. 113 Wyth good hope of pardon, the roote of Desperation beyng cleane grubbed oute. 1609Holland Amm. Marcell. xxx. xi. 394 Papyrius chaunced to espie a shrub hard by, and caused it to be grubbed up. 1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, v. i. 23 The fruite she goes with I pray for heartily..but for the Stocke..I wish it grubb'd vp now. 1640Shirley St. Patrick iv. ii, We will redeem our rashness, By grubbing up these Christians, that begin To infect us and our kingdom. 1658–9Burton's Diary (1828) III. 321 Commonwealth was a good title, but grubbed up by the title of Chief Magistrate. 1664Evelyn Sylva iii. §13 (1679) 23 The very stumps of Oak, especially that part which is dry,..being well grubb'd, is many times worth the pains and charge, for sundry rare, and hard works. a1697Aubrey Nat. Hist. Surrey (1719) III. 328 A kind of Stony Coal..he found by grubbing up the Roots of an old Oak. 1719D'Urfey Pills II. 165 A Country Bumpkin that Trees did grub. 1807E. S. Barrett Rising Sun II. 86 To lay the axe to the root of decency, and to grub up morality. 1819Crabbe T. of Hall iv. 81 Look at that land,—you find not there a weed, We grub the roots, and suffer none to seed. 1831Macaulay Hampden Ess. (1889) 203 The mutilated defenders of liberty..manfully presented the stumps of their ears to be grubbed out by the hangman's knife. 1881Whitehead Hops 8 Modern hop-planters have remorselessly grubbed the male plants. 1888Inglis Tent Life Tigerland 140 Jungles..in which the huge grey tusker grunts suspiciously as he grubs up his meal of roots.
†b. To pluck out (hair) by the roots. Also absol.
c1320R. Brunne Medit. 972 My body y ȝave to men smytyng And also my chekes to men grubbyng. 1633T. Adams Exp. 2 Peter i. 16 Yet I would not have men..to grub their beards, yea, their very chins.
4. With up, out: To extract by digging. Also transf. and fig.
c1374Chaucer Former Age 29 To grobbe vp metal lurkynge in dirkenesse. 1840Cobbett Advt. Fr. Gram., I had learnt French without a master. I had grubbed it out, bit by bit. 1842Motley Corr. (1889) I. iv. 102, I..began grubbing up antiquities. 1842S. Lover Handy Andy i. 16 He pulled forth his hand which had been grubbing up his prizes from the bottom of his pocket.
†5. ? To ‘dig’ (something) into a surface. Obs.
1607Dekker Westw. Hoe ii. i, Iusti. She leanes somewhat too hard vppon her pen yet. Hony. Then she grubs her pen. Iusti. Its but my paines to mend the neb agen.
6. intr. To dig. In recent use, connoting the idea of mean or grovellingly laborious occupation.
a1350Finding Cross 267 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1881) 60 Fast grubed þai þore obout; So depe þai grubbed & so fast, Thre crosses fand þai at þe last. c1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 208 Crist, gardener of þis vineȝerde, grubbide inne and dongide it. c1400Sege Jerusalem (E.E.T.S.) 64/1108 With mynours & masouns; myne þey bygonne, Grobben faste vndir þe grounde. c1440Promp. Parv. 217/1 Grubbyn' yn the erthe, fodico. c1460Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. iii. (1885) 114 Thai be arted bi necessite so to wacch, labour, and grubbe in the ground for thair sustenaunce, that their nature is much wastid. 1794Mathias Purs. Lit. (1798) 256, I look for no pasture in the fields of Ministers or of Booksellers: nor would I be turned out..to grub and delve in Mr. Pitt's Straw-yard. 1800Addison Amer. Law 294 McInnes sent a man to this place who grubbed a week. 1864Mrs. A. Gatty Parables fr. Nat. Ser. iv. 6 Many were the hours he had spent..grubbing in the old black soil. 1886Stevenson Kidnapped xv. (1888) 137, I met plenty of people, grubbing in little miserable fields.
b. transf. Of animals: To root, search for something in the earth, etc.
1647Trapp Comm. Mark ix. 46 Having worms ever grubbing and gnawing upon the entrails. 1845Alb. Smith Fort. Scatterg. Fam. xlii. (1887) 138 [He] was..making the animal crawl upon its knees after him, with its nose grubbing in the sawdust. 1862C. M. Yonge C'tess Kate ix. (1880) 96 A hole that looked as if an old hen had been grubbing in it. 1867F. Francis Angling iii. (1880) 79 The carp..might be seen rolling and grubbing all around the hook.
7. transf. and fig. To search in an undignified, abject, or grovelling manner; to rummage.
1800Colquhoun Comm. Thames ii. 67 These miserable beings..grub in the River at low water for old Ropes, Metals, &c. 1837Lett. fr. Madras (1843) 97 Coleoptera are more scarce, as I cannot grub for them myself for fear of centipedes. 1847Emerson Repr. Men, Swedenborg Wks. (Bohn) I. 314 Such a boy..goes grubbing into mines and mountains,..to find images fit for..his versatile..brain. 1855E. Forbes Lit. Papers xi. 280 [They] were too absorbed in the delights of their own peculiar pursuits to think of grubbing for lucre. 1884A. Lang in Century Mag. Jan. 325/2 Grubbing among Roman remains and relics. 1886Mallock Old Order Changes II. 50 Meanwhile, however, he had been grubbing about in his bag. 1895C. R. B. Barrett Survey ii. 58 Grubbing about in the oldest..part of the building, I found..four pieces of Norman..moulding.
8. Chiefly with on, along, away: To lead a meanly plodding or grovelling existence; to live laboriously or ploddingly, to toil, ‘fag’.
1735Dyche & Pardon Dict., Grub..to go on in a mean, servile, covetous, nasty Way or Manner of Living. 1766[Anstey] Bath Guide viii. 33 We may grub on with⁓out it through Life, I suppose. 1809Mrs. Mitford in L'Estrange Friendships Miss M. (1882) I. Introd. 18, I must grub away all the evening to get it accomplished. 1852Dickens Bleak Ho. v, We both grub on in a muddle. 1862G. Meredith Mod. Love, etc. Juggling Jerry x, I, lass, have lived no gipsy, flaunting Finery, while his poor help⁓mate grubs. 1868Lowell Lett. (1894) I. 401, I was grubbing away at an article for the North American. 1894‘J. S. Winter’ Red-coats 10 This sort of thing isn't living—it's only grubbing along from day to day. 1895E. Angl. Gloss., Grub, to pick up a living in mean, haphazard ways.
9. [? f. the n.] slang.
a. To take ‘grub’ or food; to feed, eat. Also to grub it.
1725New Canting Dict., Grub,..to Eat, to Dine, &c. 1839Disraeli Corr. w. Sister (1886) 121, I found some twenty⁓five gentlemen grubbing in solemn silence. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair lxiv, Come away into the supper-room..seeing those nobs grubbing away has made me peckish too. 1893R. Kipling Many Invent. 32, I was grubbing on fowls and boiled corn.
b. trans. To provide with ‘grub’ or food. slang.
1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict. s.v., To grub a person, is to diet him, or find him in victuals. 1837Dickens Pickw. xxii, The red-nosed man warn't by no means the sort of person you'd like to grub by contract. 1883Daily Tel. 18 May 3/1 They are not bound to grub you.
10. Cock-fighters' slang. (See quot.)
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Grubbing a Cock, a cutting off the Cock's Feathers under the Wings.
11. Comb. (the vb.-stem used attrib.), as grub-axe (corruptly † grubbage), -hoe, -hook, implements used in grubbing up roots, stumps, etc.; grub-fell v. trans., to bring down (a tree) by cutting at the root; grub-saw, a hand-saw used for sawing marble slabs into strips.
1611Cotgr. Aigre, a kind of *Grub-axe, or instrument wherewith roots, and shrubs are plucked up. 1669Worlidge Syst. Agric. 271 Grubbage, see Mattock. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Grubbage or Grub-ax, a Tool to grub up Roots of Trees, Weeds, etc. 1878Jefferies Gamekeeper at H. iv. 72 Strong spades and grub-axes for rooting out a lost ferret.
1894Times 11 Sept. 16/7 Every tree should be ‘*grub-felled’—that is, taken up by the roots.
1787W. Marshall Norfolk (1795) II. 381 *Grub-felling, the common method of taking down timber trees.
1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., *Grub Hoe, *Grub Hook.
1853O. Byrne Handbk. Artisan 92 The cutting is effected with smaller blades, called *grub-saws.
Hence grubbed ppl. a.
1826Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. (1863) 414 The excellent double hedge-row of grubbed wood. |