Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) the bill, usu. for food or drink.

1946		E. Wilson Pikes Peek or Bust 231: Toots’s [i.e Shor]customers often note that he ‘seldom puts the Otis on the grunt’ Philologists may be interested in that expression. The grunt is the check; ‘giving the Otis’ refers to ‘lifting,’ from Otis elevator.
1951		W. Pegler [synd. col.] 14 Aug. No evidence that El Twirpo over there ever bought a drink or picked up the grunt for a party [W&F].
1991		(con. 1920s) in J. Breslin Damon Runyon (1992) 237: You said you wanted to save the grunt.

2. (US) a slice of ham or pork; bacon [grunter n. (1)].

1901		Times (Wash., DC) 28 Apr. 4/6: Ham and eggs: ‘Two chicks and a grunt’.
1925		J. Stevens ‘Logger Talk’ AS I:3 139/1: He goes forth to eat of ‘cackleberries and grunts (eggs and bacon)’.
1934		G. & S. Lorimer Stag Line 166: What’ll it be: grunt and a couple of cacklers?
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS 233/2: cackleberries and grunts Bacon and eggs. cluck and grunt Eggs and ham.

3. (US) any person doing menial work; an assistant.

1926		‘Lineman’s Eng.’ AS I:12 659: Shorty, you and Jim [...] hang that 15 K.V.A. ‘pot’ (transformer). You can have Hay and Jabs for grunts.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 92: Grunt.-A helper or ground worker in a gang of electrical linemen, the assistant who hands up tools and materials to the men working on the poles; who prepares the hot lead for repairing cables, digs holes for the poles, etc.
1938		‘Lingo of Railroad Linemen’ AS XIII:1 70: grunt. An inexperienced workman in the gang.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 110: grunt A helper.
1959		‘More Logger Lingo’ AS XXXIV:1 78: grunt, n. A electrician’s helper in the lumber mill.
1988		T. Harris Silence of the Lambs (1991) 63: You were a grunt in the lab — you can do that, right?
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 105: His PR man, a young, third-tier grunt trying to make his bones in a large firm.
2017		L. McInerney Blood Miracles 52: Pender thinks of Dan and Shakespeare as partners, but Ryan’s only a grunt to him.
2019		S.M. Jones Lives Laid Away [ebook] ‘When was the last time you heard of some government grunt whippin’ out a C-note for anything?’.

4. (US, also grunties) excrement; thus fig., ‘the daylights’, the essence; also attrib.

1947		C. Willingham End as a Man (1963) 286: If they bother me I break them in two pieces and mash the grunt out of their can.
1988		J. McDonald Dict. of Obscenity etc.
1988		M. Atwood Cat’s Eye (1989) 230: What colour is their underwear? Grunt colour.

5. (US black) a bowel movement.

1960, 1975

Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

6. (US) an ill-tempered, constantly complaining person.

1968–69		in DARE.
2010		Indep. 27 Dec. 13/2: An old grunt ’n’ groaner with a dicky heart.

7. (US) a combat soldier, a Marine soldier or a non-flying Airforce officer [the soldier’s endless complaining].

1962		R. Tregaskis Vietnam Diary 98: Clark was more of a ‘grunt’ than an aviator.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 6: Every tinpot lancejack talks about the digs. And if he’s in anything but plain ordinary footsloggers he talks about the grunts.
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 183: Wasn’t no grunts like that when I was in the Corps.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 71: He had joined the Marine Corps to become a fighter pilot but quickly flunked out of flight school and was left with a six-year enlistment as a grunt.
2000		P. Roth Human Stain 249: The thousand-yard stare which we all picked up when we were just brother grunts.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 113: A POG got the first kill (Personnel Other Than Grunt).
2023		F. Bill Back to the Dirt 7: Gunfire that ripped a grunt’s brain from his skull as he swept the roads for land mines.

8. (also grunts) food, esp. snack food.

1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 131: Grunts Food [...] Grunts, get some Eat.
1972		D. Claerbaut Black Jargon in White America 67: grunt n. a meal; dinner.
1979		B. Gutcheon New Girls (1982) 182: You get in line for the grunts [...] and we’ll belly up to the bar.
1992		D. Burke Street Talk 2 56: What do you say we get some grunts and go scrut at my house?

9. (US) a stupid or unpleasant person.

1979		B. Gutcheon New Girls (1982) 245: Prince Charming was always some awful grunt.
1984		Eble Campus Sl. Sept. 4: grunt – a dull, clueless student, usually male. Characterized by lack of participation in class except for exclamations like Huh?

10. (N.Z.) of a vehicle, horsepower.

2002		Performance Forums 15 Oct. 🌐 [W]hy is it that when ever some older australian car has some grunt, its a bogan mobile?
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 94: grunt Power, often horsepower, eg, ‘Boy, has that souped-up Holden got some grunt.’ ANZ from 1980s.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 24: ‘I’d love to take you for a drive in my Charger. It’s got so much grunt’.

11. an extremely unattractive woman [play on pig n. (1c)].

1997

Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: grunts n. The type of undesirable bints (qv) who appear in readers’ wives pages.

12. see grunter n. (1)

13. (Aus. teen) aggression, ‘edge’.

2004

(con. 1960s-70s) T. Taylor Top Fellas 94/2: Phil was tattooed [...] and had a bit of grunt to him.