subs. (vulgar).—1. Food.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS.—Belly-cheer (or chere); belly-furniture; belly-timber; Kaffir’s tightener (specifically, a full meal); chuck; corn; gorge-grease; manablins (= broken victuals); mouth harness; mungarly; peck; prog; scoff (S. African); scran; stodge; tack; tommy (specifically, bread); tuck; yam. Also, verbally, to bung the cask; to grease the gills; to have the run of one’s teeth; to yam. See also WOLF.
FRENCH SYNONYMS.—La becquetance (popular = peck); le biffre (popular); la frigousse (popular); la fripe (popular, from O. Fr., fripper = to eat); la gringue (common); les matériaux (freemason’s = materials); la briffe (popular); la boustifaille (popular); le harnois de gueule (RABELAIS: = mouth-harness); le coton (popular, an allusion to a lamp-wick); les comestaux (popular = comestibles); le tortorage (thieves’); la broute (popular = grazing); la morfe (O. Fr. Also, in a verbal sense = to feed); tortiller du bec (popular = to wag a jaw); se calfater le bec (nautical: also = to drink); becqueter (popular = to ‘peck’); béquiller (popular); chiquer (popular = to ‘chaw’); bouffer (popular); boulotter (common); taper sur les vivres (popular = to assault the eatables); pitancher (common: also = to drink); passer à la tortore (thieves’); se l’envoyer; casser la croustille (thieves’ = to crack a crust); tortorer (thieves’); briffer; passer à briffe (popular); brouter (VILLON = to browse); se caler, or se caler les amygdales (popular); mettre de l’huile dans la lampe (common = to trim the lamp); se coller quelque chose dans le fanal, dans le fusil, or dans le tube (popular = to trim one’s beacon-light; to load one’s gun, etc.); chamailler des dents (popular = to ‘go it’ with the ivories; jouer des badigoinces (common: badigoinces = chaps); jouer des dominos (popular: dominos = teeth); déchirer la cartouche (military); gobichonner (popular); engouler (popular = to bolt); engueuler (colloquial = to gobble); friturer (popular: also = to cook); gonfler (popular: to blow out); morfiaillier (Rabelaisian); morfigner, or morfiler (From O. Fr., morfier; cf., Ital., morfire or morfizzare); cacher (popular = to stow away); se mettre quelque chose dans le cadavre (popular = to stoke); se lester la cale (nautical: to lay in ballast); se graisser les balots (thieves’: to grease the gills); se caresser (to do oneself a good turn); effacer (popular = to put away); travailler pour M. Domange (popular: M. Domange was a famous GOLDFINDER or GONG FARMER (q.v.); clapoter (popular); debrider la margoulette (popular = to put one’s nose in the manger); croustiller (popular); charger pour la guadaloupe (popular); travailler pour Jules (common: Jules = Mrs. Jones); se faire le jabot (popular: jabot = stomach); jouer des osanores (popular: osanores = teeth); casser (thieves’); claquer (familiar = to rattle one’s ivories); klebjer (popular); faire trimer les mathurins (popular = to make the running with one’s teeth); se coller quelque chose dans le bocal (common: bocal = paunch); estropier (popular = to maim); passer à galtos (nautical); bourrer la paillasse (common = to stuff the mattress); faire trimer le battant (thieves’); jouer des mandibules (popular); s’emplir le gilet (popular = to fill one’s waistcoat); se garnir le bocal (popular: to furnish one’s paunch); se suiver la gargarousse (nautical: also = to drink); babouiner (popular); charger la canonnière (popular: canonnière = the breech); gousser (popular); gouffier (obsolete).
GERMAN SYNONYMS.—Achile, Achelinchen, or Acheliniken (from Heb. Ochal); Achelputz (from Heb. ochal + putzen from O.H.G. bizan or pizzan = to eat).
ITALIAN SYNONYMS.—Artibrio; and, verbally, sbattere (= to beat, to struggle); intappare il fusto (= to bung the cask); smorfire.
SPANISH SYNONYMS.—Papar (colloquial: from papa = pap); hacer el buche (low: buche = craw or crop); echar (colloquial); manducar; meter.
1659. A Dialogue betwixt an Exciseman and Death, transcribed from a Copy in British Museum, printed in London by J. C[lark].
| Let’s joyne together; I’le pass my word this night | |
| Shall yield us GRUB, before the morning light. |
1725. A New Canting Dictionary, s.v. GRUB, victuals.
1781. G. PARKER, A View of Society, I., 171. How did you procure your GRUB and BUB? Ibid. (1789), Life’s Painter, p. 149. BUB AND GRUB. A mighty low expression, signifying victuals and drink.
1836. M. SCOTT, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. iii. Poor Purser! de people call him Purser, sir, because him knowing chap; him cabbage all de GRUB, slush, and stuff in him own corner.
1818. MAGINN, Vidocq’s Slang Song Versified. Ay, bubby and GRUB, I say.
1857. THACKERAY, A Shabby Genteel Story, ch. i., p. 9. He used to … have his GRUB too on board.
1877. W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, i. 45. I at once congratulated myself on not being a large eater, as there was no doubt but my ‘GRUB’ would run very short if it depended on my oakum-picking.
1889. Star, 3 Dec., p. 2, c. 6. Of course it was GRUB. It was for food, the food for which they beg, and steal, and go willingly to prison, for a certain good square meal of meat.
1892. HUME NISBET, The Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 154. That sad, sad secret about Mary would keep him in GRUB for the next day or two at ‘The Rose in Bloom.’
2. (old).—A short thick-set man; a dwarf. In contempt. For synonyms, see HOP-O’-MY-THUMB.
3. (colloquial).—A dirty sloven; generally used of elderly people.
4. (American).—A careful student; a hard reader.
1856. B. H. HALL, A Collection of College Words and Customs, quoted from Williams’ College Quarterly, ii., 246. A hard reader or student: e.g., not ‘GRUBS’ or ‘reading men,’ only ‘wordy men.’
5. (American).—Roots and stumps; whatever is ‘grubbed up.’
6. (cricketers’).—A ball delivered along the ground; a GROUNDER (q.v.); a DAISY-CUTTER (q.v.). For synonyms, see LOB-SNEAK.
1823. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. GRUB.
Verb. (old).—1. To take or supply with food. For synonyms, see subs. sense 1.
1725. A New Canting Dictionary, s.v., GRUB, to eat.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. GRUB. To dine.
1836. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, ch. xxii., p. 184. I never see such a chap to eat and drink; never. The red-nosed man warn’t by no means the sort of person you’d like to GRUB by contract, but he was nothin’ to the shepherd.
1883. Daily Telegraph, 18 May, p. 3, c. 1. ‘They are not bound to GRUB you, don’t you know,’ said Mr. Sleasey, ‘and they try the starving dodge on you sometimes.’
2. (old).—To beg; to ask for alms, especially food.
3. (American).—To study, or read hard; to ‘sweat.’
TO RIDE GRUB, verb. phr. (old).—To be sulky; CRUSTY (q.v.); disagreeable.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. TO RIDE GRUB; to be sullen, or out of temper.
TO GRUB ALONG, verb. phr. (common).—To make one’s way as best one can; ‘to rub along.’
1838. Daily Telegraph, 19 Oct. When a youth left school to follow the pursuits of life he found that he had to GRUB ALONG as best he could.
