grubby, a.
(ˈgrʌbɪ)
[f. grub n. + -y.]
1. a. Infested with grubs. b. Of the nature of a grub or larva.
| 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Tree, Reject those trees..that are knotty and appear to be grubby. 1852 Househ. Words 23 Oct. 138 Divesting themselves of the grubby or chrysalis-like covering of great-coats and wrap-rascals. |
2. Stunted, dwarfish. (Cf. grub n. 2 a.) Now dial.
| 1611 Cotgr., Rabougri, growne crooked, and low;..mis⁓growne, grubbie, dried up. Ibid., Ratatiné, grubbie, shrunke in, thick and short. 1712 J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 11 Observe, if there are great Trees near, whether they grow crooked, ill-shap'd, and grubby. 1886 Chesh. Gloss., Grubby, small, poor, stunted. |
3. Dirty, grimy; also slovenly and underbred.
| a 1845 Hood Black Job vi, They look'd so ugly in their sable hides: So dark, so dingy, like a grubby lot Of sooty sweeps. 1855 Chamb. Jrnl. III. 105 The lint..is sure to suffer;..it is sure to become foul, and, as it is technically termed, ‘grubby’. 1859 F. E. Paget Curate of Cumberworth, etc. 227 A pack of grubby children in a frowzy school. 1861 Sala Dutch Pict. xxi. 330 That shabby, grubby, ill-smelling old street. 1893 G. Allen Scallywag I. 153, I like Mr. Thistleton..he's quite nice, of course, and there's nothing grubby about him. |
4. dial. (See quot. and cf. grub n. 3.)
| 1841 Hartshorne Salop. Antiq. 450 Grubby, testy, ill⁓tempered, peevish. |
Hence ˈgrubbiness, grubby or grimy condition.
| 1866 Morn. Star 20 Aug. 4/6 Their face in a condition of grubbiness. |
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Add: ˈgrubbily adv.
| 1934 in Webster. 1987 I. McEwan Child in Time iv. 85 Squat, grubbily rendered houses dreaming under their hot roofs. |