grubstake
Americannoun
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provisions, gear, etc., furnished to a prospector on condition of participating in the profits of any discoveries.
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money or other assistance furnished at a time of need or of starting an enterprise.
verb (used with object)
noun
verb
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informal to furnish with such supplies
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to supply (a person) with a stake in a gambling game
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of grubstake
Vocabulary lists containing grubstake
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:
But Hagan also lavishes praise upon Wenner for building a media empire from a tiny grubstake.
From New York Times ● Nov. 27, 2017
Both, as it happens, were attributes prized by Charles Lewis Tiffany, who helped found a store that sold stationery and fancy goods in 1837 with a $1,000 grubstake from his father.
From New York Times ● Apr. 15, 2015
At the firm's start in 1985, Schwarzman and co-founder Peter G. Peterson shared a secretary and oversaw a grubstake of just $400,000.
From BusinessWeek ● May 7, 2009
A former wildcatter who parlayed a $2,500 grubstake into a worldwide company with holdings stretching at times from Canada to the North Sea, Pickens had been gunning for Cities Service since 1979.
From Time Magazine Archive
He told Westerberg he planned on staying until April 15, just long enough to put together a grubstake.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
In 1941 Scotty broke down and confessed that the gold mine was a myth; he had been grubstaked "for laughs" by the late multimillionaire.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Reconstruction Finance Corp., which has grubstaked Kaiser-Frazer Corp. to some $50 million, last week decided to ride along on the mule as well.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Kaiser-Frazer Corp., which has been grubstaked by the RFC to just about all the Government money it can get for its auto business, struck it rich in the private money markets last week.
From Time Magazine Archive
Luckier than all the prospectors were the traders who grubstaked them.
From Time Magazine Archive
"I grubstaked him for the Hopeful-Dynamite discovery," he said.
From Rimrock Trail by Joseph Allan Dunn
The first stage in the development of a mine is grubstaking the prospector.
From Time Magazine Archive
He used to say: 'When you are grubstaking, you take chances.
From Time Magazine Archive
It's named after Walter Scott, a flamboyant prospector and veteran of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, who conned a millionaire Chicago insurance executive named Albert Johnson into grubstaking a worthless mine.
From Time Magazine Archive
Potent in State politics, he became popular by his generosity in grubstaking ranchers and prospectors.
From Time Magazine Archive
You know as well as I do that papers ain't often drawn on grubstaking contracts.
From Rimrock Trail by Joseph Allan Dunn
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.
