Green’s Dictionary of Slang

food and drink, thus grub and bub shop, a restaurant.

1781		G. Parker View of Society I. xxii. 171: How did you procure your Grub and Bub?
1789		G. Parker Life’s Painter 158: Bub and Grub. A mighty low expression signifying victuals and drink.
1824		J. Wight Mornings in Bow St. 265: An art that will be dignified to all posterity, as being that art by which the patriot Preston procured bub and grub for his family.
1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 221: The grub and bub were soon afterwards on the table.
1837		Northern Liberator 21 Oct. 4/7: The higher class [...] always feel for the climbing boys (sweeps) and supplies us with bub and grub.
1840		Flash Mirror 19: G. Guttle [...] has just opened a slap up grub and bub shop [...] (for ready rag only), where he sells panum, lap and peck of every sort.
1841		Hants. Advertiser 28 Aug. 2/3: The Manchester people provide grub and bub for the preachers and their congregations.
1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 14 Apr. 2: ‘Bub and Grub’ unexceptional, as usual.
1850		Sussex Advertiser 26 Feb. 8/3: ‘A tightener; what do you mean?’ [...] ‘Why plenty of grub and bub, to be sure’.
1850		Man of Pleasure’s Illus. Pocket-book n.p.: This harpy is said to have been a rooter to the poor shakes, who beat stones for their doss, bub, and grub.
1887		Arizona Sentinel (Yuma, AZ) 1 Oct. n.p.: He will give you for ‘bub and grub’ a dish of ‘scouse’.
1862		Bell’s Life in Sydney 19 July 3: £3 in ‘hard tin’ and ‘bub and grub’ to the tune of seventy bob.
1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 116/1: I teach you your business — I provide you grub and bub, while you’re learning it, all free and without charge.
1872		Western Times 24 Feb. 2/3: Pious people willing to pray for the souls of Gilbert and John Long in return for ‘grub and bub’.
1878		C. Hindley Life and Times of James Catnach 205: ‘The vorn’t a going to hav’ no new French Police Spy system in their ancient and honourable City,’ said Aldermen Cute-Grub-Bub-Turtle-and-Soup.
1884		A. Griffiths Chronicles of Newgate 519: A widow woman, who gave him ‘bub and grub’ or food and one-and-sixpence for every nine days’ work.
1894		Worcs. Chron. 20 Oct. 4/6: The party took water in a barge well stowed with ‘bub and grub’.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 34: Grub and Bub, food and drink.

(UK und.) bed and board.

1862

Morn. Post (London) 18 Dec. 3/3: ‘Grub and snooze’ bed and board.

an eating house.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 509/1: from ca. 1840.

(US) an eating house.

1885

Ledger (Noblesville, IN) 14 Aug. 6/2: ‘The grub-hole won’t be open until 5 o’clock’.

(US) fingers or hands.

1919		Boys’ Life Feb. 23/2: I wisht a can o’ that salmon you was talkin’ about would jist drop into my grub-hooks.
1919		D. Runyon ‘A Tale of Two Fists’ XXVIII in Pittsburgh Press (PA) 16 June 23/2: My hero’s chin may inadvertently meet up with one of Jess’s big, bone grub-grabbers.
1923		Poems, Ballads, and Parodies 54: I could hear the dull buzz of the bee / As he sunk his grub hooks into me.
1933		J. Spenser Limey 189: Make him keep his lousy grub-hooks on his own side o’ the table!
1959		N. Nye Long Run (1983) 97: He fastened one of those grub-hooks into the front of Howlett’s jacket [...] and tugged.
1987		C. Thain Cold as a Bay Street Banker’s Heart 77: Keep your grub hooks off my things [HDAS].

(US campus) a boarding-house.

1894

Star-Gaz. (Elmira, NY) 15 May 4/3: Yale College Slang [...] The New Haven boarding houses are ‘grub-joints,’ or ‘hash-houses’.

(US) an itinerant, out-of-work cowboy who subsists on hand-outs; thus on the grub line .

1909		W.M. Raine Brand Blotters (1912) 22: He was no booze-fighting grubliner.
1911		C. Lockhart Me - Smith 65: I reckon you think I’m kind of a mounted bum, a grub-liner or something like that.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘A Word List From Montana’ in DN IV:iii 244: on the grub line, phr. Descriptive of one who always stays for meals. ‘Stone’s never worked and were always on the grub line’.
1922		Sat. Eve. Post 195 22/1: The news of the Wharton raid had been carried to the bunk house by a grub-liner the night before.
1924		W. James Drifting Cowboy (1931) 146: The regular grub line rider is nothing but a range bum.
1952		W.D. Overholser Fabulous Gunman 46: She had mistaken him for a grub-line rider.

(US) the mouth.

1880		Pilgrim Old Nick’s Camp Meetin’ 110: I [...] kin say off the very words what rolled out’n his grub-mill [HDAS].
1890		Practical Dentist 2 480: Tooth tinkers of the right sort aint oncommon thick, and so that ere coon wot I pinted at has been kick’in up the all-firedist rack’t in my grub-mill.

(US, Western) a meal.

1869		‘Bill Dadd, the Scribe’ Great Trans-continental Railroad Guide 63/2: Teamsters on the plains call a meal a ‘grub pile’.
1870		J.H. Beadle Life in Utah 223: At the shout of ‘grub-pile,’ every man ‘went for’ his share in haste.
1884		W. Shepherd Prairie Experiences 221: The word is given, ‘Grub pile’; every man washes his face and hands, and seizing his couvert, he helps himself and eats.
1892		‘Cowboy Reverie’ in Lingenfelter et al. Songs of the Amer. West (1968) 414: No more will the cook’s call to ‘grub-pile’ / Cause me from my hard bed to creep.
1900		H. Garland Eagle’s Heart 212: ‘Grub-pile! All down for grub!’ yelled the cook.
1911		C.E. Mulford Bar-20 Days 125: ‘Grub pile!’ shouted Stevenson, and the two made haste to obey.
1924		C.E. Mulford Rustler’s Valley 69: By th’ way, what time is grub-pile ’round here? [DA].
1936		R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 151: From the familiar calls of the camp cook we select a few: ‘Grub-pile, come a-runnin’, fellers’.
1949		‘Yellowstone Flat’ in Lingenfelter et al. Songs of the Amer. West (1968) 333: You will hear the cook holler ‘grub pile’.

1. an eating house; in UK public schools, a ‘tuck-shop’.

1839		Bradford Obs. 12 Dec. 4/4: That’s the grub-shop [...] where we young gentlemen wot has money buys our wittels.
1863		Uppingham School Mag. I 46: Another reason for having a ‘grub shop’ is, that under school management a great deal of the ‘trash’ [...] that is now sold would be done away with.
1877		Lancing College Mag. 2 617: In old times the Grub-Shop was managed directly by a School Committee, employing however a shop-woman.
1881		Morn. Post (London) 28 Sept. 2/5: [I was] frequently supplied, while at Harrow, with hampers from home and a tick at the ‘grub shop’.
1899		Public School Mag. 3 177: School fare is proverbially [...] wholesome and if you will stick to it without extraneous aid from the grub shop you will not go far wrong.
1913		Dundee Courier 1 Jan. 8/6: The ‘grub-shop’ and the ‘tuck-box’ are two of the greatest enemies to all-round fitness.
1925		Dundee Courier 17 Aug. 7/5: [of a canteen] Where’s that grub-shop?
1930		Hull Dly Mail 29 Oct. 7/4: [of a cafe] It might even be a good idea to try and find and grub shop and stoke up.

2. the mouth.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 509/1: from ca. 1860.

1. a cook.

1912		R.C. Murphy Logbook for Grace (1948) 6 July 6: ‘Griddlecakes,’ inquired our Dutch West Indian, black grub-slinger, ‘what’s them?’.
2012		http://www.comstocksaloon.com 🌐 About Comstock Saloon. Carlo Espinas, Grub Slinger.

2. a waiter or waitress.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

(US) a cook.

1883		J.T. Keane On Blue-Water 35: These ‘water-whelps,’ as we called them, are properly called ‘dough-boys,’ but our ‘grub-spoiler’ – pet name for ship’s cook– called them ‘swimmers’ probably because they were such heavy sinkers.
1903		Indep. 26 Nov. 2794/2: The victualing department was presided over by two heathen grub spoilers, who [...] could not boil water without burning it .
1907		B.M. Bower Happy Family of the Flying U 269: I’d like to know when that darned grub-spoiler bought into the outfit, anyhow.
1935		A.E. Dingle Pipe All Hands 328: But ’twas all thot crazy grub-spoiler c’d do to kill a silly sheep, lave alone stickin’ th’ steel into the gizzard av a human mon.
1949		W. Granville Sea Sl. 114: Grub spoiler. A naval cook.
1953		Boys’ Life Aug. 39/1: ‘Cookie [...] we was only jokin’,’ moaned one saddle bum. ‘I’m jokin’ too,’ snapped the irate grub-spoiler.
1961		(con. WW2) G. Foulser Seaman’s Voice 77: Hirohito would have given that grub-spoiler a medal if he’d known what the cook used to dish up for us blokes.
1997		R.B. Platt Royalscope Fe-As-Ko 95: ‘Good grub-spoiler?’ To which I had to expound that a grub-spoiler was a cook, whether or not the grub was spoilt.

see separate entries.

(US) a restaurant.

1901

‘Hugh McHugh’ John Henry 37: I took her down the lane to one of those swell grub stations the other night.

the mouth.

1845

Bell’s Life in Sydney 20 Sept. 3/2: From some mis-taken notion the mad’un still kept fighting for the nut in lieu of Grub-street.

(US) hunger; appetite.

1897

(ref. to 1880s) L.A. Times 9 Apr. 5: Ten years ago, a man entering such restaurants on the Bowery as Boss Tweed’s, Tom Fish’s or ‘Beefsteak John’s’ and having any respect for his future appetite or ‘grub thirst,’ as it was called then, generally wore his ear muffs.

the mouth.

1845		E. Sue Mysteries of Paris trans. in Roscoe’s Novel Library 140/1: Open your grub-trap, and take the end of this wipe between your ivories.
1867		Smyth Sailor’s Word-book.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1902		H. Baumann Londinismen (2nd edn).

the stomach.

1832

Egan Bk of Sports 25: The Pet [...] made very free with the Grub Warehouse of his opponent.

(US black) to eat, esp. voraciously.

1993		Ice Cube ‘It Was a Good Day’ 🎵 I got my grub on, but didn’t pig out .
1999		J. Ridley Everybody Smokes in Hell 131: Me and Kenny fiddn’ ta go to Roscoe’s, get our grub on.
2004		Eble Campus Sl. Apr.

employed.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 91: ‘In grub;’ in work, and the means of buying victuals.

keenly, enthusiastically.

1902

H. Baumann Londinismen (2nd edn).