grub

plural grubs · alternative UK dialectal grob

1. countableAn insect, especially a beetle, at an immature stage of its life cycle.

   Synonyms: larva

2. slanguncountableFood.

   pub grub

   1 more example

   "The rice ration's down to nearly damn-all in the kampongs, but we keep finding dumps of grub in the forest."

   1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 298

   Synonyms: aliment, bait, belly-timber, chow, comestibles, cuisine, eatables, eats

3. AustraliacountableslanguncountableA dirty person.
4. AustraliacountableslanguncountableA despicable person; a lowlife.
5. countableobsoleteuncountableA short, thick man; a dwarf.

   John Romane, a short clownish grub, would bear the whole carcase of an ox, yet never tugged with him.

   1609, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall, London: […] S[imon] S[tafford] for Iohn Iaggard, […], →OCLC

present singular third person grubs · participle present grubbing · participle past grubbed · past grubbed · alternative UK dialectal grob

1. transitiveTo scavenge or in some way scrounge, typically for food.
2. ambitransitiveTo dig; to dig up by the roots; to root out by digging; often followed by up.

   to grub up trees, rushes, or sedge

   2 more examples

   They do not attempt to grub up the root of sin.

   1846, Julius Hare, The Mission of the Comforter

   Yet there was no time to be lost if I was ever to get out alive, and so I groped with my hands against the side of the grave until I made out the bottom edge of the slab, and then fell to grubbing beneath it with my fingers.

   [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC

3. datedslangtransitiveTo supply with food.
4. datedslangTo eat.

   “[…] John dear, we must give this little fellow his supper, you know.” “Of course we must, my darling.” “He has been grubbing and grubbing at school,” said Bella, looking at her father’s hand and lightly slapping it, “till he’s not fit to be seen. O what a grubby child!”

   1864 May – 1865 November, Charles Dickens, “Concerning the Mendicant’s Bride”, in Our Mutual Friend. […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1865, →OCLC, 4th book (A Turning), page 202