Why Is It Called a Grubbing?

The Middle English verb grubben, grobben “to dig the earth (with a tool)” comes from an unrecorded Old English verb grybban, grubbian and is akin to Gothic graban “to dig,” Old High German grubilōn “to dig, search for,” Middle Dutch grobben, and Dutch grobbelen “to root about, feel about for something.”

Why do they call it grub?

The same root that produced grava, turned up in Old English grybban "to dig", which ultimately became grub. Because pigs and other animals usually grub for food, the word grub also became cowboy slang meaning "food". ... The Old English word for "ditch" was graef, which today is grave.

What does grub mean in 60s slang?

Boss, bitchen', tuff) grub. noun; a person considered inferior to the speaker. “Everyone called the dirty, ill-mannered boy a grub.”