subs. (colloquial).—The world of cheap, mean, needy authors. [Originally a street near Moorfields, changed in 1830 to Milton Street.]
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. GRUB-STREET news, false, forg’d.
1728. POPE, The Dunciad, iii., 135. Shall take through GRUB-STREET his triumphant round.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. A GRUB-STREET writer means a hackney author, who manufactures books for the booksellers.
1813. J. and H. SMITH, Horace in London, ‘The Classic Villa.’ GRUB-STREET, ’tis called.
1821. P. EGAN, Life in London, i. Few, if any, writers, out of the great mass of living scribblers, whether of GRUB-STREET fabrication, or of University passport … possess souls above buttons.
1892. HUME NISBET, The Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 119. We are going it, have got our agents in GRUB STREET.
