Meanings
- The home or state of impoverished writers and literary hacks.
Upon the occasion of his first publication he quit his day job, only to find that Grub Street wasn't lined with manors and villas but hovels and slums.
1 more example
Not that the existence of Grub street is to be doubted: it was, indeed, a grim actuality, and many a garreter realised by experience How unhappy's the fate To live by one's pate And to be forced to write hackney for bread.
1972, Pat Rogers, Grub Street: Studies in a Subculture, page 384
Origin
After Grub Street in London, England (now named Milton Street), a haunt of and home to impoverished writers.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Grub Street. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Grub%20Street
“Grub Street.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Grub%20Street. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Grub Street,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Grub%20Street.
Source: Grub Street on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.