grub

(redirected from grubbing)
Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Idioms, Encyclopedia.

Related to grubbing: Clearing and Grubbing

grub

(grŭb)

v. grubbed, grub·bing, grubs

v.tr.

1. To dig up by or as if by the roots: grubbed carrots with a stick.

2. To clear of roots and stumps by digging: grubbed a small plot.

3. Slang To obtain by importunity: grub a cigarette.

v.intr.

1. To dig in the earth: grub for potatoes.

a. To search laboriously by or as if by digging; rummage.

b. To toil arduously; drudge: grub for a living.

1. The thick wormlike larva of certain beetles and other insects.

2. A drudge.

3. Slang Food.

[Middle English grubben, from Old English *grybban; see ghrebh- in Indo-European roots.]

grub′ber n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

grub

(ɡrʌb)

vb, grubs, grubbing or grubbed

1. (when: tr, often foll by up or out) to search for and pull up (roots, stumps, etc) by digging in the ground

2. to dig up the surface of (ground, soil, etc), esp to clear away roots, stumps, etc

3. (intr; often foll by in or among) to search carefully

4. (intr) to work unceasingly, esp at a dull task or research

5. slang to provide (a person) with food or (of a person) to take food

6. (tr) slang chiefly US to scrounge: to grub a cigarette.

7. (Zoology) the short legless larva of certain insects, esp beetles

8. slang food; victuals

9. a person who works hard, esp in a dull plodding way

10. informal Brit a dirty child

[C13: of Germanic origin; compare Old High German grubilōn to dig, German grübeln to rack one's brain, Middle Dutch grobben to scrape together; see grave³, groove]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

grub

(grʌb)

n., v. grubbed, grub•bing. n.

1. the thick-bodied, sluggish larva of certain insects, esp. the beetle.

2. an unkempt person.

3. Slang. food; victuals.

4. a drudge.

v.t.

5. to dig; clear of roots, stumps, etc.

6. to dig up by the roots; uproot (often fol. by up or out).

7. Slang. to supply with food.

8. Slang. to scrounge.

v.i.

9. to dig; search by or as if by digging.

10. to lead a laborious or groveling life; drudge.

11. to engage in laborious study.

[1250–1300; Middle English; akin to Old High German grubilōn to dig, Old Norse gryfia hole, pit]

grub′ber, n.

grub

Past participle: grubbed
Gerund: grubbing

Imperative
grub
grub

Present
I grub
you grub
he/she/it grubs
we grub
you grub
they grub

Preterite
I grubbed
you grubbed
he/she/it grubbed
we grubbed
you grubbed
they grubbed

Present Continuous
I am grubbing
you are grubbing
he/she/it is grubbing
we are grubbing
you are grubbing
they are grubbing

Present Perfect
I have grubbed
you have grubbed
he/she/it has grubbed
we have grubbed
you have grubbed
they have grubbed

Past Continuous
I was grubbing
you were grubbing
he/she/it was grubbing
we were grubbing
you were grubbing
they were grubbing

Past Perfect
I had grubbed
you had grubbed
he/she/it had grubbed
we had grubbed
you had grubbed
they had grubbed

Future
I will grub
you will grub
he/she/it will grub
we will grub
you will grub
they will grub

Future Perfect
I will have grubbed
you will have grubbed
he/she/it will have grubbed
we will have grubbed
you will have grubbed
they will have grubbed

Future Continuous
I will be grubbing
you will be grubbing
he/she/it will be grubbing
we will be grubbing
you will be grubbing
they will be grubbing

Present Perfect Continuous
I have been grubbing
you have been grubbing
he/she/it has been grubbing
we have been grubbing
you have been grubbing
they have been grubbing

Future Perfect Continuous
I will have been grubbing
you will have been grubbing
he/she/it will have been grubbing
we will have been grubbing
you will have been grubbing
they will have been grubbing

Past Perfect Continuous
I had been grubbing
you had been grubbing
he/she/it had been grubbing
we had been grubbing
you had been grubbing
they had been grubbing

Conditional
I would grub
you would grub
he/she/it would grub
we would grub
you would grub
they would grub

Past Conditional
I would have grubbed
you would have grubbed
he/she/it would have grubbed
we would have grubbed
you would have grubbed
they would have grubbed

Collins English Verb Tables © HarperCollins Publishers 2011

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Noun	1.	grub - informal terms for a meal chuck, eats, chow fare - the food and drink that are regularly served or consumed
	2.	grub - a soft thick wormlike larva of certain beetles and other insects larva - the immature free-living form of most invertebrates and amphibians and fish which at hatching from the egg is fundamentally unlike its parent and must metamorphose maggot - the larva of the housefly and blowfly commonly found in decaying organic matter leatherjacket - tough-skinned larva of certain crane flies
Verb	1.	grub - ask for and get free; be a parasite bum, cadge, mooch, sponge obtain - come into possession of; "How did you obtain the visa?" freeload - live off somebody's generosity; "This young man refuses to work and is freeloading"
	2.	grub - search about busily look for, search, seek - try to locate or discover, or try to establish the existence of; "The police are searching for clues"; "They are searching for the missing man in the entire county"

grub

noun

1. larva, maggot, caterpillar The grubs do their damage by tunnelling through ripened fruit.

2. (Slang) food, feed, rations, tack (informal), eats (slang), kai (N.Z. informal), sustenance, nosh (slang), victuals, nosebag (slang), vittles (obsolete or dialect) Get yourself some grub and come and sit down.

verb

1. search, hunt, scour, ferret, rummage, forage, fossick (Austral. & N.Z.) grubbing through piles of paper for his address

2. dig, search, root (informal), probe, burrow, rootle (Brit.) chickens grubbing around in the dirt for food

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

grub

verb

1. To break, turn over, or remove (earth or sand, for example) with or as if with a tool:

delve, dig, excavate, scoop, shovel, spade.

2. To do tedious, laborious, and sometimes menial work:

drudge, plod, slave, slog.

Informal: grind.

noun

1. One who works or toils tirelessly:

drudge, fag, plodder, slave.

Informal: grind, workhorse.

2. Slang. Something fit to be eaten:

aliment, bread, comestible, diet, edible, esculent, fare, food, foodstuff, meat, nourishment, nurture, nutriment, nutrition, pabulum, pap, provender, provision (used in plural), sustenance, victual.

Slang: chow, eats.

Translations

Spanish / Español

Select a language:

larva

grub

[grʌb]

A. N

1. (= larva) → larva f, gusano m

2. (= food) → comida f
grub('s) up! → ¡la comida está servida!

B. VI to grub about in the earth for sth → remover la tierra buscando algo

C. CPD Grub Street N (Brit) el mundillo de los escritores desconocidos

grub up VT + ADV → arrancar, desarraigar; (= discover) → desenterrar

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

grub

(grab) noun

1. the form of an insect after it hatches from its egg. A caterpillar is a grub.larva, gusano

2. a slang term for food. Is there any grub in the house?papeo, manduca

verb – past tense, past participle grubbed –

to search by digging. The pigs were grubbing around for roots.escarbar, hurgar

grub

→ larva

Mentioned in ?

References in periodicals archive ?

The Union's so-called voluntary grubbing up' scheme - supported by over 1 billion from 2008 to 2011 - did not lead to the expected reduction in wine volume and took up a disproportionate level of EU financing, the court said.

AGRICULTURE : COURT QUESTIONS EFFECTIVENESS OF WINE REFORM

These lures are most commonly rigged on a jighead and bumped across the bottom; in the Florida winter, this is a great way to target flounder on shallow sand or over shell beds, but who's to say what species might be grubbing around that day you're fishing.

Grubbin' around: nine innovative ways to fish a classic inshore bait

Pappy never mentioned a stump-pulling machine, but he told of grubbing stumps out by hand.

Working for a living: 10 cents per stump

It has adopted a report written by Greek socialist MEP Katerina Batzeli, who while arguing that the "public storage of alcohol should be abolished," calls for the retention, even expansion, of market-distorting subsidies helping vineyards survive and avoid grubbing up.

European Parliament pushes for watered down EU wine reform

Excavation quantities, the amount of clearing and grubbing, and the cost estimates were too high; erosion matting and piping were also included.