grubber
(ˈgrʌbə(r))
[f. grub v. + -er1.]
1. One who grubs, lit. and fig.; a digger; a searcher among ruins and the like; a laborious worker.
| 13.. St. Erkenwolde 41 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1881) 267 Mony grubber in grete þe grounde for to seche. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 217/1 Grubbare in þe erthe, or oþer thynggys (H. grovblare, P. growblar), fossor, confossor, fossatrix. 1776 S. J. Pratt Pupil of Pleasure I. 33 Homespun soon discovered himself to be a grubber in books. 1825 Scott Fam. Lett. 17 Sept. (1894) II. xxiii. 346 You are so capital a grubber that I have little doubt you will light upon it sooner or later. 1849 Miss Mulock Ogilvies xxviii. (1875) 209 The hard-working grubbers in science. 1882 F. J. Furnivall E.E. Wills Ded. 9, I, or some grubber of like kind. 1892 Daily News 26 May 3/1 It is time to see the grubbers at work. We reach ‘the face’—that is to say, the parts where the hewers and blasters of the rock are at work. |
2. An implement for grubbing, breaking up ground, uprooting stumps or weeds, etc.
| 1598 Florio, Arpago..a rake, a harrow, a grubber. 1831 Sir J. Sinclair Corr. II. 157 The scarrifier or grubber, for pulverizing the soil. 1848 Chambers' Inform. I. 487/2 The common Scotch grubber resembles a strong harrow frame, running upon four wheels and guided like a plough. 1861 Times 10 Oct., The bean stubble is broken up by Tennant's grubber and the wheat lightly ploughed in. 1886 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Grubber, a tool for rooting—a combination of axe and mattock. 1911 Encycl. Brit. VII. 618/2 Cultivator, also called scuffler, scarifier or grubber. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 392/2 Grubber, a heavy type of cultivator in which the teeth are set rigidly in a frame. 1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Feb. 271/2 The aim should be to secure a seed-bed with a rubbly surface and with the fine soil worked to the bottom through frequent use of grubber and harrows. |
3. One who gets together wealth by sordid or contemptible methods. Now usually money-grubber. [Cf. Du. grobber money-grubber.]
| 1578 T. White Serm. at Paul's Cross 58 Such grubbers there bee whiche grynde the faces of the poore. |
4. a. An eater, a feeder. b. slang. (See quot. 1940.) c. Food.
| 1838 ‘P. Pry’ Oddities London Life I. 235 She chucks ony von tater at me, and a bit of meat vot aint of no use to sitch a heavy grubber as I am. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. vi. (1889) 50, I like to see a fellow an honest grubber at breakfast and dinner. 1861 Dickens Gt. Expect. III. 9 ‘I'm a heavy grubber, dear boy’, he said, as a polite kind of apology when he had made an end of his meal. 1940 M. Marples Publ. School Slang 91 Grubber, tuck⁓shop..tuck-box. 1959 I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. ix. 163 Food in general is referred to as ‘bait’.., ‘grub’, or ‘grubber’. |
5. Cricket. = grub n. 5.
| 1837 Bell's Life 15 Oct. 4/1 The Catapulta..was capable of..giving a home toss or a grubber. 1924 Lawrence & Skinner Boy in Bush 116 Ross..sent down a sulky grubber. 1963 Times 23 May 4/1 Constable was undermined by a ‘grubber’. |
6. In full grubber kick. In Rugby Football, a forward kick of the ball along the ground. Hence grubber-kick v. intr., to make a grubber kick.
| 1950 Adam (Sydney) Feb. 29 If it wasn't Sullivan's boot winning kicking duels, it was Parkin's grubber-kicks. 1956 V. Jenkins Lions Rampant xiii. 199 This time Ulyate put through a grubber kick from fly-half which Cameron failed to gather. 1958 N.Z. Listener 18 July 6/4 He tried grubber kicking. All right, if they're going to grubber kick there's only one thing to do. 1960 Sunday Times 27 Nov. 20/1 From a set scrum, Lockyer fed Kirkpatrick, going right, and he put a grubber kick between Rogers and D. Bebb. |