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:
“It’s not even a business for me,” Ivanka claimed on that podcast about her island project—but it certainly will be for some, and likely a grubby one.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026
The floor was so grubby that the thought of sitting anywhere on it was nauseating — and regardless, the lanes were now too dark for reading, lit primarily by bright neon stripes and squiggles.
From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2026
For admirers who like their Bard semidivine, it’s unappealing to think of him amid these grubby realities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
"After a really busy summer the city can look a bit grubby and that's just because we don't have the money to keep it to a good standard," he said.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2025
The face of the strange boy was very grubby.
From "The Magician's Nephew" by C. S. Lewis
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
But then she talks about the rewards of being a bus driver, especially with those riders whose appearance is grubbier than others’.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 4, 2020
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
"He went to the grubbiest children and hugged and kissed them."
From Time Magazine Archive
And I made up my mind, then and there, that next Christmas there should be a tree for all the littlest and grubbiest children in my old home.
From The Fairies and the Christmas Child by Lilian Gask
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
