Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun, plural grub·bies.
- a small sculpin, Myxocephalus aenaeus, inhabiting waters off the coast of New England.
adjective -bier or -biest
- dirty; slovenly
- mean; beggarly
- infested with grubs
“dirty,” by 1845, from grub (n.) in a sense of “dirty child” (who presumably got that way from digging in earth) + -y (2). Earlier it was used in a sense of “stunted, dwarfish” (1610s) and “infested with grubs” (1725). Related: Grubbily; grubbiness.