Grub-street
(ˈgrʌbstriːt)
1. orig. The name of a street near Moorfields in London (now Milton-street), ‘much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems’ (J.); hence used allusively for the tribe of mean and needy authors, or literary hacks.
| 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Wks. ii. 2/1 When strait I might descry, The Quintescence of Grubstreet, well distild Through Cripplegate in a contagious Map. 1689 Shadwell Bury F. v. 56 The very Spirit of Grubstreet Reigns in you. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull Pref., O Grubstreet! thou fruitful Nursery of tow'ring Genius's! 1809 Byron Bards & Rev. 547 Long, long beneath that hospitable roof Shall Grub-street dine, while duns are kept aloof. 1870 Emerson Soc. & Solit., Books Wks. (Bohn) III. 80 Now and then, by rarest luck, in some foolish Grub Street is the gem we want. |
2. attrib. or as adj. Pertaining to, emanating from, or characteristic of Grub-street; of the nature of literary hack-work; rarely, like a needy scribbler.
| 1648 Mercurius Fidelicus (Thomasson Tracts B.M.) CCCLXXXIV. No. 32. 6 The Grub-street pamphleteer. 1672 Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 26 Grubstreet and Polemical Divinity. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Grub street News, false, Forg'd. 1710 Swift Tatler No. 230 ¶2 Till of late Years, a Grubstreet Book was always bound in Sheep⁓skin. 1760 Voy. W. O. G. Vaughan I. 129 Grub-street Quill-drivers. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue s.v., A Grub-street writer means a hackney author, who manufactures books for the booksellers. 1856 Lowell Lett. (1894) I. 276 At present I am perfectly Grubstreet, but then I have the pleasure of earning every penny I spend. a 1860 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxiii. (1889) II. 644 Nor was it only in Grub Street tracts that such reflections were to be found. |
Hence Grubstreetian n., Grubstreetonian a. (nonce-wds.).
| c 1721 Misc. Lett. Mist's Jrnl. (1722) II. 303 Ha, ha, ha, all the Judges sit upon the Grub-Streetians! Ibid. 321 Any able Grubstreetian. 1805 Spirit Publ. Jrnls. (1806) IX. 245 A Ballad in the Style Grubstreetonian. |