Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) enough money to buy one a meal; ext. to any form of deposit or any form of advance that allows one to work or otherwise survive.

1863		H. Edgar Journal 27 May in Montana Hist. Society Contrib. (1900) III 138: ‘A grub stake is what we are after’ was our watchword all day, and it is one hundred and fifty dollars in good dust. ‘God is good’ as Rodgers said.
1882		A.J. Fountain Report of Dona Ana County 19: As their ‘grub stake’ was by this time exhausted, they returned to Hillsboro and got employment [and] saved up their wages for several months, in order to have a ‘grubstake’.
1885		H. Butterworth Zig-zag Journeys Western States 309: What is roughly termed a ‘grub stake’.
1897		Oregonian 19 July n.p.: The applicants were eager to go as prospectors, or to ally themselves with what might even be ‘grubstake’ concerns.
1901		Boy’s Own Paper 4 May 482: He hadn’t a cent in the world beyond the value of his grub-stake.
1907		S.E. White Arizona Nights 198: So far things wasn’t so bad. We had a good grubstake.
1912		J. London Smoke Bellew (1926) 104: Two months after Smoke Bellew and Shorty went after moose for a grubstake, they were back in the Elkhorn saloon at Dawson.
1923		N. Anderson Hobo 83: He only works long enough in one place to get a ‘grubstake,’ or enough money to live on for a few days.
1940		C.B. Glasscock Here’s Death Valley 192: Julian Gerard gave Scott an initial grubstake of $1500.
1956		‘Toney Betts’ Across the Board 119: Nobody knows how much he gave away in grubstakes.
1965		C. Himes Cotton Comes to Harlem (1967) 36: Those eighty-seven families who had put down their thousand-dollar grub-stakes on a dream.
1976		R. Sabbag Snowblind (1978) 84: He would go back to Barranquilla and invest the balance of his grubstake in José’s product.
2004		E. Weiner Drop Dead, My Lovely (2005) 282: The medical bill ate up my grubstake, angel.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 17: Okie had told him the location of several grubstake caches [...] He gathered the twenties and found a bed of oilcloth.

2. (also grubstakes, grubsteaks) food, rations.

1882		E. Nye Forty Liars (1888) 113: Well, a grubstake is a stake that the boys hang their grub on.
1901		Norfolk Wkly News (NE) 7 June 7/1: [He] took him inter his shack an fed him up [...] an then turned him lose with a grub stake.
1906		E. Pugh Spoilers 15: An’ ’ow did you go on the grub-stakes, Chick?
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 112: Grub Stake: A man’s share of rations.
1936		(con. 1900s) F. Richards Old Soldier Sahib (1965) 88: The Indian crows [...] would come right into the tents [and] pinch anything in the way of grub-stakes that they could find.
c.1940–5		‘Myles na gCopaleen’ Best of Myles (1968) 62: Matteradamn what he’s at, it has to stop when the grub-steaks is on the table.
1943		W. Guthrie Bound for Glory (1969) 320: Wagons loaded with groceries for grubstake.