Grub definition
Grub for potatoes.
Grubbed carrots with a stick.
Grubbed a small plot.
An example of grub is digging and pulling weeds out of a garden bed.
Grub a cigarette.
Grub for a living.
To grub up trees, rushes, or sedge.
An example of grub is the stage of a beetle before it cocoons and turns into its beetle form.
Origin of grub
- Middle English grubben from Old English grybban ghrebh-2 in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- From hypothetical Old English root *grubbian, from Proto-Germanic *grubb- (compare Old High German grubilōn (“to dig, search”), German grübeln (“to meditate, ponder”)), from Proto-Germanic *grub- (“to dig”). The noun sense of "larva" (c.1400) may derive from the notion of "digging insect" or from the possibly unrelated Middle English grub (“dwarfish fellow”). The slang sense of "food" is first recorded 1659, has been linked with birds eating grubs or with bub (“drink”)."
From Wiktionary