grub

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“
When the cocoon that blocks the way contains a dead instead of a live grub, will the result be the same In my glass tubes, I let Osmia-cocoons containing a live grub alternate with Osmia-cocoons in which the grub has been asphyxiated by the fumes of sulphocarbonic acid.

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Definitions (26)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (9)

  1. transitive verb To dig up by or as if by the roots: grubbed carrots with a stick.
  2. transitive verb To clear of roots and stumps by digging: grubbed a small plot.
  3. transitive verb Slang To obtain by importunity: grub a cigarette.
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Examples (50)

  • "Neither touch nor sight can come into play, for the grub is sealed up in its burrow at a depth of several inches; nor the scent, since it is absolutely inodorous; nor the hearing, since its immobility is absolute during the daytime." —  Fabre, Poet of Science
  • What's the use of chinnin' with that cub when the grub is ready. —  Messenger No. 48
  • "William, go tell the driver to bring the big car round; and tell the cook to get several baskets, full of grub--we're going to have a little party Well, by and by the chauffore brought the car round in front and we went out; and William and the others loaded her up with baskets. —  The Man Next Door
  • When the grub is full fed it attaches the top of its body to a leaf, twig or other object and pupates. —  An Elementary Study of Insects
  • He'd go three days without grub, and laugh all the time. —  Thomas Jefferson Brown
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

larva ·  grasshopper ·  caterpillar ·  beetle ·  worm ·  maggot ·  moth ·  termite ·  snail ·  ant ·  spider ·  insect

Used in the same contextWord Family

grub:   grubs
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English grubben, from Old English *grybban; see ghrebh-2 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English grubben, sometimes grobben, dig; prob. of Low German origin; cf. Low German freq. grubbeln, grope, with equivalent grabbeln (cf. English grabble). The sense is the same as that of Old High German grubilōn, Middle High German grübelen, German grübeln, grub, dig, rake, stir, search minutely (= Swedish grubbla = Danish gruble, muse, ponder, ruminate on), a freq. verb, allied to graben (preterit grub), dig, = Anglo-Saxon grafan, English grave, dig: see grave.
  2. from grub, v.
 

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/grəb/
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