grubby
1 Americannoun
-
grubbies
plural
adjective
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dirty; slovenly
-
mean; beggarly
-
infested with grubs
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of grubby1
First recorded in 1605–15; grub + -y 1
Origin of grubby2
Origin uncertain
Explanation
Grubby things are really dirty, like your little sister's grubby hands after she's spent an afternoon making mud pies. Have you ever seen a little kid eat a chocolate ice cream cone on a hot day? Picture the kid's face covered in chocolate and you'll have a good idea of what grubby means! This adjective dates back to the mid-19th century, from grub, which means "insect larva" and which was once colloquially used to mean "dirty child."
Vocabulary lists containing grubby
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
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The Magician's Nephew
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
At least Elon Musk will never be able to get his grubby little ravioli paws on your sticker-adorned binder of crystal card pulls.
From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2026
“No matter what I do, the beds still look a bit creased and worn, even grubby, in pictures.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026
Print and cinema’s strings are being pulled by the grubby, greedy hands of executives who care far more about money and expediency than art and process.
From Salon ● May 1, 2026
"Dirty" and "grubby" telephone boxes are a blight on a city centre, say local residents, who are calling for upgraded, digital communication kiosks to replace them.
From BBC ● Dec. 5, 2025
It was a grubby sort of place with dark stains and bits of shells and sawdust on the floor.
From "The Reader" by Traci Chee
Brazil’s slower pace of life also appeals to migrants such as Rogelio Naranjo, who works in a Cuban barbershop on the grubbier outskirts of Curitiba.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
As the name suggests, From The Pyre is darker, grubbier, more gothically grandiose than their critically acclaimed debut, Prelude To Ecstasy.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2025
After picking up trash on Earth Day, I suggest a grubbier summation: We are what we toss.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 30, 2023
By the early 1960s, the crowds were seedier, the clubs grubbier and the production all but gone.
From New York Times ● Jun. 29, 2022
The bathroom is grubbier than the rest of the house: grime around the sink, toothpaste smeared on the mirror.
From "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins
His passion for theater, from its grubbiest particulars to its headiest heights, is the thread that binds together a slightly miscellaneous collection.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 27, 2021
The final reason practical effects are hip again is the grubbiest: they’re a piece of the swag we call “fan service.”
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 20, 2016
Sean Ingle dons his grubbiest Columbo mac to investigate.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 1, 2010
To be sure, these 33 hours or so of recorded talks are a minuscule fraction of Richard Nixon's presidential conversations—and, one can only hope, the grubbiest fraction.
From Time Magazine Archive
When I was a tiny child my greatest desire was to play with all the grubbiest children in the parks.
From Antony Gray,—Gardener by Leslie Moore
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
