1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, iii., 416. I know all the good houses, and the tidy grubbikens—that's the unions where there's little or nothing to do for the food we gets.
Grubble, verb. (colloquial).—(1)
To feel for at random or in the
dark; and (2) (venery) TO
grope (q.v.).
1684. Dryden, The Disappointment. 'Prologue.' The doughty bullies enter bloody drunk, Invade and grubble one another's punk.
Grubby, subs. (thieves').—Food.
[A diminutive of Grub (q.v.).]
d. 1842. Maginn, Vidocq's Song. I pattered in flash like a covey knowing, Tol lol, etc. Ay, bub or grubby, I say.
Adj. (colloquial).—Dirty; slovenly.
d. 1845. Hood, A Black Job, Like a grubby lot of sooty sweeps or colliers.
Grub-hunting, subs. (tramps').—Begging
for food.
Grub-shite, verb. (old).—To
make foul or dirty; to bewray.—Grose.
Grub-shop, (or -crib, -trap, etc.),
subs. (common).—1. The mouth;
and (2) a grubbery (q.v.). For
synonyms, see Potato-trap.
1840. Thackeray, Comic Almanack, p. 229. 'That's the grub shop,' said my lord, 'where we young gentlemen wot has money buys our wittles.
3. See Grubbing-crib in both senses.
Grub-stake, subs. (American).—Food
and other necessaries
furnished to mining prospectors
in return for a share in the 'finds.'
Hence, to grub-stake = to
speculate after this fashion.
1884. Butterworth, Zig-zag Journeys. When miners become so poor that they are not able to furnish the necessary tools and food with which to 'go prospecting, a third party of sufficient means offers to furnish tools and provisions on condition that he is to have a certain interest in anything that may be found.
1891. Gunter, Miss Nobody of Nowhere, p. 100. He grub-staked us and we used to work on the Tillie mine together.
Grub-street, subs. (colloquial).—The
world of cheap, mean,
needy authors. [Originally a
street near Moorfields, changed in
1830 to Milton Street.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Grub-street news, false, forg'd.
1728. Pope, Dunciad, iii., 135. Shall take through grub-street his triumphant round.
1785. Grose, Vulg. 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. 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, Bushranger's Sweetheart, p. 119. We are going it, have got our agents in Grub Street.
Gruel, subs. (common).—1. A
beating; punishment (q.v.). For
synonyms, see Tanning. Hence,
to get (or give) one's gruel
= to castigate, or be well beaten;
also killed. In the prize ring =
to knock a man out for good.
Gruelled = floored; also
Gruelling.
1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxviii. He gathered in general, that they expressed great indignation against some individual. 'He shall have his gruel,' said one.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. 'Babes in the Wood.' He that was mildest in mood gave the truculent rascal his gruel.
1849. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. xii. They were as well gruelled as so many posters, before they got to the stile.
