▪ I. shrub, n.1
(ʃrʌb)
Forms: 2–7 shrubbe, 4–6 s(c)hrobbe, 6 shroub, shrewb, 6–7 shrubb, 7 shrob, 6– shrub.
[App. repr. OE. scrybb fem. (occurring only once) presumed to mean ‘shrubbery, underwood’. There may have been a parallel form *scrubb without umlaut. (scrub n.1 is a parallel form.)
The following forms seem to be all related to the Eng. word and their meanings point to a general sense of ‘rough plant or bush’: NFris. skrobb the broom plant, underwood, brushwood, WFlem. schrobbe climbing wild pea or vetch, Norw. skrubba dwarf cornel, Da. dial. skrub brushwood.]
1. a. A woody plant smaller than a tree; spec. in Bot. a perennial plant having several woody stems growing from the same root.
| 972 in Birch Cartul. Sax. (1893) III. 603 Of þare stan stræte andlang sorybbe [Note, ‘or scrybbe, the MS. indistinct’] þæt hit cymð to Acantune. 11.. Ibid. I. 58 Fram Winebriᵹth westriᵹte to one weie þet geþ to Winchestre þat is ihoten shrubbeshedde bitwiene þe shrubbes and Winebriᵹt. |
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 61 Schroysbury..hatte Schroisbury of schrobbes and fruyt þat grewe somtyme on þat hille. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. i. 2 Y shop me into shrobbis [v.r. schrubbes] as y a shepherde were. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. ci. (1495) 666 Mirtus is a lytyll tree as it were a shrobbe. 1530 Palsgr. 267/2 Schrobbe a busshe, arbrisseau. 1553 Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 18 This tree (or rather shrubbe) is deuided into many braunches. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 595 A very thicket of shrobs upon an hill. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 30 Sept. 1644 Rosemary, lavender, lentiscs, and the like sweet shrubes. 1791 W. Gilpin Forest Scenery I. 98 The holly can hardly be called a tree, tho it is a large shrub. 1802 Wordsw. Farewell 11 The flowering shrubs that deck our humble door. 1870 Yeats Nat. Hist. Comm. 197 The cotton shrub is cultivated in India. 1870 Hooker Stud. Flora 342 Salix herbacea..The smallest British shrub. |
| transf. 1653 R. Sanders Physiogn. 144 On thy thighs, Though meagre, ugly shrubs of hair arise. |
b. fig. and in proverbial use.
| 1592 Soliman & Pers. v. iii, The shrub is safe when the Cedar shaketh. 1604 T. Wright Passions iv. ii. §1. 127 These men questionlesse haue some little shrubs of pride and vanitie. 1646 G. Daniel Poems Wks. (Grosart) I. 213, I was Shap't Only to flutter in the lower Shrubbs Of Earth⁓borne follies. 1672 Sir T. Browne Let. Friend §37 They who thus timely descend into themselves, cultivating the good seeds which nature hath set in them..become not shrubs but cedars in their generations. |
† 2. A twig, sprig, sprout.
Obs.| c 1530 Tindale Jonas Prol. B viij b, It greueth thyne hert for the losse of a vile shrobbe or spraye. 1585 C. Fetherstone tr. Calvin on Acts vii. 30 The thicker the bush is, and the more store of shrubbes it hath. a 1592 Greene Jas. IV, (1861) 206 The rose although in thorny shrubs she spreads, Is still the rose. 1647 Hexham i, Full of shrubs, vol spruyten. |
† 3. A mean, inferior, insignificant person;
= scrub n.1 5.
Obs.| 1566 Drant Sat. i. x. E vj b, Suche carelesse, brainlesse, senslesse shrubbs. 1656 S. Winter Serm. 93 God's..ey and his heart was towards them..though poor shrubs praying in the temple. 1683 Bunyan Greatn. Soul (1691) 131 The Gyants in grace, as well as the weak and shrubs. 1690 C. Nesse Hist. & Myst. O. & N. Test. I. 200 The poor shrub had sped so well in prayer. |
4. attrib. and
Comb.| 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 44 Fumitorie..is a bushie or shrublike Herbe. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis iii. 61 Aparrayld In shrub weeds thorny [consertum tegimen spinis]. c 1710 C. Fiennes Diary (1888) 220 Ye squares are full of gooseberry and Shrub-trees. 1786 Abercrombie Gard. Assist. 317 In most of the tree and shrub kinds. 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) II. 448 Stems rather shrub-like. a 1817 T. Dwight Trav. New Eng., etc. (1821) II. 457 Currants, gooseberries, and other kinds of shrub fruit. 1841 Browning Pippa Passes Introd. 46 All the while thy rain Beats fiercest on her shrub-house window-pane. 1870 C. Kingsley At Last xi, The welcome shade of low shrub-fringed cliffs. 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 52 A dry land shrub-belt. 1933 A. Osborn Shrubs & Trees v. 38 Endeavour to visualize the shrub-border when its inmates are fully grown. 1978 R. E. Heath Miniature Shrubs p. vii, A shrub border once planted needs very little after care. |
b. spec. applied to shrubby plants and to other natural objects resembling shrubs, as
shrub coral,
shrub worm; also
shrub cotton, a variety of the cotton plant intermediate between the herbaceous and the arborescent;
† shrub-mallow, marsh mallow,
Althæa;
† shrub-nightshade, woody nightshade,
Solanum Dulcamara;
shrub oak,
= scrub-oak,
scrub n.1 6 c;
† shrub pea, the shrubby pea of Barbados;
shrub rose, a rose,
esp. a species or variety long in cultivation, allowed to follow its natural pattern of growth;
cf. old rose a;
shrub-shilling, a variety of the pine-tree shilling (see
pine-tree b) of Massachusetts (
Cent. Dict.);
shrub-snail, a European snail,
Helix arbustorum;
shrub trefoil,
yellowroot (see
trefoil, yellowroot).
| 1640 Parkinson Theat. Bot. 857 *Shrub spotted Arsmart of Virginia. |
| 1681 Grew Musæum iii. §1. iii. 275 The *Shrub-Coral Corallium fruticosum. |
| 1858 Homans Cycl. Comm. 434/1 The pod of the *shrub cotton differs from that of the herb in being egg-shaped. |
| 1640 Parkinson Theat. Bot. 298 *Shrub Mallow with a white or purple flower. |
| 1664 *Shrub nightshade [see nightshade1 2]. 1688 Holme Armoury ii. iv. 75/2 The Shrub Night-shade, hath a dark brown stock and branches, the flowers like the common Night-shade, in one white, in another blew. |
| 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) I. vii. lxxxix. 408 Passing through..several forests of *shrub oaks. 1784 J. Belknap Tour White Mts. (1876) 18 Among the brakes and wind-falls and shrub oaks on the pitch pine plain adjoining the Pond. 1868 B. J. Lossing Hudson 213 Making our way..through gorges filled with shrub-oaks. |
| 1691–6 Plukenet Almagestum Wks. 1769 III. 291 Phaseolus Barbadensis fruticosus Septennii durationis. The Seven Years Pea, and The *Shrub Pea. |
| 1948 G. S. Thomas in Jrnl. R. Hort. Soc. LXXIII. 170 (heading) *Shrub roses for the modern garden. 1980 A. Wilson Setting World on Fire II. iv. 117 She runs a shrub rose nursery garden in Sussex. |
| 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. iii. 175 The Helix..Arbustorum, Linn., or *shrub snail. |
| 1668 Charleton Onomast. 55 Fruticarii..*Shrub⁓worms. |
▪ II. shrub, n.2 (
ʃrʌb)
[Variant of shrab, or metathetic ad. Arab. shurb drink, draught.] 1. A prepared drink made with the juice of orange or lemon (or other acid fruit), sugar, and rum (or other spirit).
Often
rum-shrub; also with other qualifying words indicating the ingredient which takes the place of the rum in drinks prepared in this way to which the name ‘shrub’ is extended.
| 1747 Gentl. Mag. 468 A mixture of lemon juice and rum (shrub as they call it) may be carried in any quantity, as it will keep a long time. 1762 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 118 Three seamen dropt down with fatigue and thirst, though wine, rum, and shrub were given them alternately. 1764 E. Moxon Eng. Housew. (ed. 9) 145 To make Orange Shrub. 1808 Sporting Mag. XXX. 99, 38 gallons of rum shrub. 1835 Dickens Sk. Boz, Miss Evans & Eagle, Miss Ivins's friend's young man would have the ladies go into the Crown, to taste some shrub. 1863 Trevelyan Compet. Wallah (1866) 138 Beer-shrub, brandy-shrub, sherry-shrub, Simkin-shrub, tea-shrub. 1888 Besant Fifty Yrs. Ago xi, Is there any living man who now calls for shrub? |
2. U.S. A cordial or syrup made from the juice of the raspberry, with vinegar and sugar.
| 1860 O. W. Holmes Elsie V. vii, Mr. Peckham, would you be so polite as to pass me a glass of shrub? Silas Peckham..took from the table a small glass cup, containing a fluid reddish in hue and subacid in taste. 1884 C. D. Warner Their Pilgr. xi, Sipping their raspberry shrub in a retired corner of the bar-room. |
▪ III. shrub, v. (
ʃrʌb)
[Of mixed origin: partly parallel form to scrub v., partly f. shrub n. With sense 4 cf. MDu. schrobben to scratch or root in the ground.] † 1. trans. = scrub v.
1 1.
Obs.| 13.. K. Alis. (Laud MS.) 4310 Þe knaues graiþen her hors & shrubben. |
† 2. intr. To rub or scratch the body; to fidget.
| c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 300 With youre body be not shrubbynge. 1594 Nashe Unfort. Trav. L 1, As how? as how? sayde Zadoch, shrugging and shrubbing. |
† 3. trans. To scratch.
Obs.| 1657 W. Coles Adam in Eden lvii, Asses love to.. shrub their backs with its prickles [the rest-harrow]. |
† 4. trans. To grub up (bushes); to rid (ground) of shrubs or stumps.
Obs.| 1553 Short Catech. in J. Randolph Enchir. Theol. (1792) I. 68 The husbandemen that fyrst vse to shrubbe and roote out the thornes..oute of their ley land. 1573 Baret Alv. G 573 To Grub, to shrubbe, or rid from bushes or trees. 1611 Cotgr., Desfricher, to grub, shrub, rid the ground from rootes. |
† 5. To lop (a tree, its branches); also
fig. Obs.| 1573 A. Anderson Expos. Benedictus 64 The Papistes..though they be woll shrubbed, and shred, yet they begin euen nowe before the springe, to budde. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xxiii. 81 These accusations, were rather to shrub off his faire top. 1650 Fuller Pisgah ii. i. 56 Shroudly shrubbing their branches, God rent them up by the roots. 1682 Grew Anat. Plants Introd. 3 Trunks, some being more Entire, others Branched, others Shrub'd. |
† 6. To cudgel.
Obs.| 1599 Greene Pinner of Wakefield v. i, Were not for shame, I would shrub your shoulders well. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), To Shrub one, to cudgel or bang him soundly. |
7. pass. To be planted with shrubs.
| 1886 R. F. Burton Arab. Nts. (abr. ed.) I. 140 A running stream whose banks were shrubbed with bushes of rose and jasmine. 1891 ‘Annie Thomas’ That Affair II. ix. 144 A secluded spot, well treed and shrubbed in. |
Hence
ˈshrubbing vbl. n.| 1611 Cotgr., Defrichage, the shrubbing, or grubbing vp of yong wood. 1654 Gayton Pleas. Notes iii. v. 92 Sancho imputes all his shrubbings to his Masters perjuries. |