Dictionary

grubbery en · NOUN

Etymology

From grub + -ery.

Meanings

1. (countable, slang) A basic restaurant or cookshop.
   • Patterned after the grubberies and saloons frequented by hungry prospectors, the restaurant satisfies hearty appetites with savory appetizers […] 2007, Orange Coast Magazine, volume 33, number 2, page 197:
   • His strength and stamina were doubted; he was a youth of not more than 19 years of age, nearly six feet high, 12 stone in weight, but thought to have more gristle than bone: his victualling office had also been some time out of commission; however, the keen air of Hampstead, added to a good grubbery, had not only produced an improvement of his frame, but had reduced the odds against him, […] 1818, Pierce Egan, Boxiana; or, Sketches of Antient and Modern Pugilism, page 292:
2. (uncountable) The quality of being grasping; a tendency to grub.
   • "From thieving Arabs to Jewish grubbery, it had to be the daughter of a wheel merchant." 1994, André Aciman, Out of Egypt: A Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Farrar Straus Giroux, →ISBN, pages 75–76:
   • As another comes with blue-eyed guilt, bed / dressed in morning grubbery in your mind, […] 2011, Max Wallis, Modern Love, London: Flap, →ISBN, page 23:
   • Judging by the way political sex scandals had operated since time immemorial, any seasoned bettor would have sworn that Trump's then-nascent political career was over on Oct. 7, 2016, when The Washington Post published the "Access Hollywood" tape baring the Donald in all his grubbery. 2024 October 3, Pamela Paul, “Donald Trump, You Lucky Dog”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Oct 2024:

Forms