grub

«grub» in Mova's school dictionary: the young, worm-like form (larva) of some insects… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a grub, grubs — larva; grub — uncountable, slang: food); verb (grub, grubs, grubbed, grubbing)

meaning for a pupil

1) A grub is the young, worm-like form (larva) of some insects, especially beetles, which lives in soil or wood. tree →

2) (informal, UK, Australia, NZ) Grub means food: «Grub's up!» means the meal is ready. tree →

3) (verb) To grub means to dig or search about in the ground or in a messy place: «the pig grubbed for roots». tree →

4) (Australia) A «witchetty grub» is a large grub eaten as traditional bush food by Aboriginal people. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science lessons grubs come up in insect life cycles (egg, larva, pupa, adult) and food chains: birds, hedgehogs and badgers eat grubs. In everyday talk «grub» is cheerful slang for food, especially at camp or at home. In Australian lessons, witchetty grubs are part of bush tucker. The adjective «grubby» means dirty.

examples

• The bird pulled a fat grub out of the lawn. tree →
• A beetle grub lives in rotten wood. tree →
• «Grub's up!» called Dad from the kitchen. tree →
• The food at camp was good grub. tree →
• Witchetty grubs are a traditional Aboriginal bush food. tree →
• The hedgehog grubbed around in the leaves for insects. tree →
• A grub is the larva stage of a beetle. tree →
• Catherine went as she was bid, and began to grub for them, and soon made herself very dirty with the earth. tree →

note

Plural «grubs» (insects). As «food» it is informal and uncountable: «some grub». Past «grubbed». «Grubby» (dirty) comes from it. A grub is a larva, not a worm, even though it looks wormy.

In the corpora

• Woodpeckers hammer wood up to about 20 times a second to find grubs, dig nests and drum to claim a territory.
• Gulls follow a tractor ploughing a field, because ploughing turns up worms and grubs.
• Real bears and honey badgers raid bee nests and eat the protein-rich grubs as well as the honey.
• Many spend years as a fat grub in soil or wood and only weeks as an adult.
• In autumn farmers plough and sow winter wheat or barley, and gulls and rooks follow the plough to snatch worms and grubs.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «grub» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.