The Collaborative International Dictionary
Grub \Grub\ (gr[u^]b), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Grubbed (gr[u^]bd), p. pr. & vb. n. Grubbing.] [OE. grubbin., cf. E. grab, grope.]
To dig in or under the ground, generally for an object that is difficult to reach or extricate; to be occupied in digging.
To drudge; to do menial work.
--Richardson.
Wiktionary
n. The act by which something is grubbed, or dug up. vb. (present participle of grub English)
WordNet
See grub
Wikipedia
Grubbing or clearing refers to the removal of trees, shrubs, stumps and rubbish from the future right-of-way of a transportation corridor (i.e. a highway), cut lines or the footprint of a structure. Grubbing is performed following surveying and preceding construction.
Usage examples of "grubbing".
Heavily built creatures with wide faces and massive jaws, the australopithecines had been grubbing for insects and foraging desiccated fruit.
Big grove of royal palms on there then, and grubbing out them palms paid for the work.
Frank Hamilton, was back inland with Uncle Jesse Hamilton and Henry Thompson, grubbing out royal palms on the Johnson Mound, cause times was very hard and getting harder.
And, if the truth be told, Bass, the anti-Rome sentiment of the English people began at that time, through the preachments of these commoner-priests-cum-prelates against the sloth, indolence, money grubbing and posturings of the Church hierarchy.
He had seen aliens face to faceand not simple trampy Skells, grubbing in garbage cans, but wild people, net-men, living like settled beasts in a prohibited area.
Women he knew did not go grubbing about in damp crypts, digging up broken bits and pieces of the past.
When Jakkin turned away from the shelf there was Makk again, ready to lead him to another portion of the cave where men were grubbing around the walls, using metal picks the size of fewmet shovels, mining out the stuff Makk called ore.
And the Flenser state would not be a mindless agglomeration grubbing about in some jungle.
It was very unpleasant to see those filthy and disproportioned animals which soon numbered about fifteen, grubbing about and making their kangaroo leaps in the grey twilight where titan towers and monoliths arose, but it was still more unpleasant when they spoke among themselves in the coughing gutturals of ghasts.
Finally he looked up and noticed that the noctambulo had moved a short distance upstream from him and was grubbing about intently in the mud of the shore with its great scooplike hands, prodding and poking in it, dredging up large handfuls of mud that it turned over and over, inspecting them with almost comically deep attention.
There were plastic strips that she stuck on and peeled off, grubbing up numerous pluglike impurities from her follicles and pores.
Small-lives in large numbers and variety pattered about, nosing out grubs, picking crawlers off leaves and grassblades, munching on tender greens, sucking juice from plants or other animals, grubbing up roots and tubers of all kinds, a web of busy life invisible and vigorous and non-threatening.
The sight of a poor creature grubbing for rhymes to fill up his sonnet, or to cram one of those voracious, rhyme-swallowing rigmaroles which some of our drudging poetical operatives have been exhausting themselves of late to satiate with jingles, makes my head ache and my stomach rebel.
He had seen aliens face to faceand not simple trampy Skells, grubbing in garbage cans, but wild people, net-men, living like settled beasts in a prohibited area.
Grubbing about in picture books and wallowing idly in the chinampa, Mixtli could have done nothing to bring himself to the notice of even a slave dealer, let alone a royal court.