different between grub vs maggot

English

Etymology

From hypothetical Old English *grubbian, from Proto-Germanic *grubb- (compare Old High German grubil?n (“to dig, search”), German grübeln (“to meditate, ponder”)), from Proto-Germanic *grub- (“to dig”). The noun sense of "larva" (c. 1400) may derive from the notion of "digging insect" or from the possibly unrelated Middle English grub (“dwarfish fellow”). The slang sense of "food" is first recorded 1659, and has been linked with birds eating grubs or with bub (“drink”)."

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???b/
• Rhymes: -?b

Noun

grub (countable and uncountable, plural grubs)

1. (countable) An immature stage in the life cycle of an insect; a larva.

   Synonym: larva

2. (uncountable, slang) Food.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:food

3. (Australia, slang) A dirty person.
4. (Australia, slang) A despicable person; a lowlife.
5. (obsolete) A short, thick man; a dwarf.
   • 1602, Richard Carew, Survey of Cornwall

     John Romane, a short clownish grub, would bear the whole carcase of an ox, yet never tugged with him.

Derived terms

• grubby
• grublike
• witchety grub

Translations

See also

• caterpillar
• maggot
• worm

Verb

grub (third-person singular simple present grubs, present participle grubbing, simple past and past participle grubbed)

1. To scavenge or in some way scrounge, typically for food.
2. (transitive, intransitive) To dig; to dig up by the roots; to root out by digging; often followed by up.

   to grub up trees, rushes, or sedge

   • 1846, Julius Hare, The Mission of the Comforter

     They do not attempt to grub up the root of sin.

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     Yet there was no time to be lost if I was ever to get out alive, and so I groped with my hands against the side of the grave until I made out the bottom edge of the slab, and then fell to grubbing beneath it with my fingers.

3. (slang, dated, transitive) To supply with food.
4. (slang, dated) To eat.

   • "John dear , we must give this little fellow his supper , you know ."
     “ Of course we must , my darling . "
     “ He has been grubbing and grubbing at school, ” said Bella

Translations

Anagrams

• -burg, Burg, burg

German

Pronunciation

Verb

grub

1. singular past imperfect of graben

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *gr?b?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?rû?b/

Adjective

gr?b (definite gr?b?, comparative gr?blj?, Cyrillic spelling ?????)

1. rough, coarse
2. rude

Declension

English

Etymology

From Middle English magot, magotte, probably Anglo-Norman alteration of maddock (“worm", "maggot”), originally a diminutive form of a base represented by Old English maþa (Scots mathe), from Frankish *maþ?, from common Proto-Germanic *maþô, from the Proto-Indo-European root *mat, which was used in insect names, equivalent to made +? -ock. Near-cognates include Dutch made, German Made and Swedish mask.

The use of maggot to mean a fanciful or whimsical thing derives from the folk belief that a whimsical or crotchety person had maggots in his or her brain.

Pronunciation

• enPR: m?g'?t, IPA^(key): /?mæ??t/

Noun

maggot (plural maggots)

1. A soft, legless larva of a fly or other dipterous insect, that often eats decomposing organic matter. [from 15th c.]
2. (derogatory) A worthless person. [from 17th c.]

   Drop and give me fifty, maggot.

3. (now archaic, regional) A whimsy or fancy. [from 17th c.]
   • 1620, John Fletcher, Women Pleased, III.iv.

     Are you not mad, my friend? What time o' th' moon is't? / Have not you maggots in your brain?

   • 1778, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin 2001, p. 100:

     ‘I am ashamed of him! how can he think of humouring you in such maggots!’
4. (slang) A fan of the American metal band Slipknot.

Synonyms

• (soft legless larva): grub

Derived terms

Related terms

• mawk
• mawkish

Translations