grubbery

English

Etymology

From grub +‎ -ery.

Noun

grubbery (countable and uncountable, plural grubberies)

1. (countable, slang) A basic restaurant or cookshop.
   • 1818, Pierce Egan, Boxiana; or, Sketches of Antient and Modern Pugilism, page 292:

     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, […]

   • 2007, Orange Coast Magazine, volume 33, number 2, page 197:

     Patterned after the grubberies and saloons frequented by hungry prospectors, the restaurant satisfies hearty appetites with savory appetizers […]

2. (uncountable) The quality of being grasping; a tendency to grub.
   • 1994, André Aciman, Out of Egypt: A Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Farrar Straus Giroux, →ISBN, pages 75–76:

     "From thieving Arabs to Jewish grubbery, it had to be the daughter of a wheel merchant."

   • 2011, Max Wallis, Modern Love, London: Flap, →ISBN, page 23:

     As another comes with blue-eyed guilt, bed / dressed in morning grubbery in your mind, […]

   • 2024 October 3, Pamela Paul, “Donald Trump, You Lucky Dog”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-10-03:

     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.