1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. i., p. 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, 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. [[225]]
3. (colloquial).—A dirty sloven; generally used of elderly people.
4. (American).—A careful student; a hard reader.
1856. Hall, College Words and Phrases, quoted from Williams’ Coll. 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. Bee, Dict. of the Turf. Grub, s.v.