ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Grub

Definition, Meaning & Examples

Pronunciation /ɡɹʌb/ · Part of speech noun

Quick meaning: Grub is a noun meaning (countable) An insect, especially a beetle, at an immature stage of its life cycle.

Meaning

(countable) An insect, especially a beetle, at an immature stage of its life cycle.

More Meanings

  1. (uncountable, slang) Food.
  2. (Australia, slang) A dirty person.
  3. (Australia, slang) A despicable person; a lowlife.
  4. (transitive) To scavenge or in some way scrounge, typically for food.
  5. (ambitransitive) To dig; to dig up by the roots; to root out by digging; often followed by up.
  6. (obsolete) A short, thick man; a dwarf.
  7. (slang, dated, transitive) To supply with food.

Example Sentences

to grub up trees, rushes, or sedge
They do not attempt to grub up the root of sin.
John Romane, a short clownish grub, would bear the whole carcase of an ox, yet never tugged with him.
"The rice ration's down to nearly damn-all in the kampongs, but we keep finding dumps of grub in the forest."

Word Forms

Synonyms for grub

Depending on context, synonyms include larva, bait, belly-timber, chow, comestibles, cuisine.

Antonyms for grub

Common opposites include starve.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include sponge, ferret, cadge, chuck, feed, chow.

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Sources & Attribution

FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.