Grousing, subs. (venery).—Going in quest of women; sparrow-catching
(q.v.); molrowing (q.v.).
Groute, verb. (Marlborough and Cheltenham Colleges).—To work or study
hard; to swot (q.v.). For synonyms, see Wire In.
Grouty, adj. (common).—Crabbed; sulky.
Grove of Eglantine, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum; also the
female pubic hair. For synonyms, see Monosyllable and Fleece.
1772. Carew, Poems. ‘A Rapture.’ Retire into thy Grove of
Eglantine.
Grove of the Evangelist, subs. phr. (common).—St. John’s Wood; also
Apostle’s Grove, and the Baptist’s Wood.
Grow, verb. (prison).—To be accorded the privilege of letting one’s
hair and beard grow. Also to grow one’s feathers.
Growler, subs. (common).—A four-wheeled cab. Cf., Sulky.
English Synonyms.—Bird-cage; blucher; bounder; fever-trap;
flounder-and-dab (rhyming); four-wheeler; groping hutch; mab (an old
hackney); rattler; rumbler.
French Synonyms.—Un bordel ambulant (common = a walking brothel); un
char numèroté (popular); un flatar (thieves’); un foutoir ambulant (= a
fuckery on wheels); un mylord (popular).
1870. Orchestra, 21 Mar. A recent enigmatical bill-poster on the
walls, with the device ‘Hie, Cabby, Hie!’ turns out to be a Patent
Cab Call—an ingenious sort of lamp-signal for remote hansoms and
growlers.
1873. Land and Water, 25 Jan. The knacker’s yard is baulked for a
time, while the quadruped shambles along in some poverty-stricken
growler.
1883. Daily Telegraph, 8 Jan., p. 5, c. 3. But while a great
improvement has been made in hansoms of late years, the
four-wheeler or growler is still as a rule a disgrace to the
metropolis.
1890. Daily Graphic, 7 Jan., p. 14, c. 1. What with hansom cabs and
growlers and private broughams; what with bonded carmen’s towering
waggons.
1891. Globe, 15 July, p. 1, c. 3. Adapting the words of Waller to
the condition of many of our growlers—The cab’s dull framework,
battered and decayed, Lets in the air through gaps that time has
made.
To rush (or work) the growler, verb. phr. (American workmen’s).—See
quot. [Growler = pitcher.]
1888. New York Herald, 29 July. One evil of which the inspectors
took particular notice was that of the employment by hands in a
number of factories of boys and girls, under ten and thirteen
years, to fetch beer for them, or in other words to rush the
growler.
Grown-man’s-dose, subs. (common).—A lot of liquor. Also a long drink
(q.v.). For synonyms, see Go.
Grown-up, subs. (colloquial).—An adult: among undertakers, a grown.
1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, Bk. ii., ch. 1. I always did like
grown ups.
Grub, subs. (vulgar).—1. Food.
English Synonyms.—Belly-cheer (or chere); belly-furniture;
belly-timber; Kaffir’s tightener (specifically, a full meal); chuck;
corn; gorge-grease; manablins (= broken victuals); mouth harness;
mungarly; peck; prog; scoff (S. African); scran; stodge; tack; tommy
(specifically, bread); tuck; yam. Also, verbally, to bung the cask; to
grease the gills; to have the run of one’s teeth; to yam. See also
Wolf.
French Synonyms.—La becquetance (popular = peck); le biffre (popular);
la frigousse (popular); la fripe (popular, from O. Fr., fripper = to
eat); la gringue (common); les matériaux (freemason’s = materials); la
briffe (popular); la boustifaille (popular); le harnois de gueule
(Rabelais: = mouth-harness); le coton (popular, an allusion to a
lamp-wick); les comestaux (popular = comestibles); le tortorage
(thieves’); la broute (popular = grazing); la morfe (O. Fr. Also, in a
verbal sense = to feed); tortiller du bec (popular = to wag a jaw); se
calfater le bec (nautical: also = to drink); becqueter (popular = to
‘peck’); béquiller (popular); chiquer (popular = to ‘chaw’); bouffer
(popular); boulotter (common); taper sur les vivres (popular = to
assault the eatables); pitancher (common: also = to drink); passer à la
tortore (thieves’); se l’envoyer; casser la croustille (thieves’ = to
crack a crust); tortorer (thieves’); briffer; passer à briffe
(popular); brouter (Villon = to browse); se caler, or se caler les
amygdales (popular); mettre de l’huile dans la lampe (common = to trim
the lamp); se coller quelque chose dans le fanal, dans le fusil, or
dans le tube (popular = to trim one’s beacon-light; to load one’s gun,
etc.); chamailler des dents (popular = to ‘go it’ with the ivories);
jouer des badigoinces (common: badigoinces = chaps); jouer des dominos
(popular: dominos = teeth); déchirer la cartouche (military);
gobichonner (popular); engouler (popular = to bolt); engueuler
(colloquial = to gobble); friturer (popular: also = to cook); gonfler
(popular: to blow out); morfiaillier (Rabelaisian); morfigner, or
morfiler (From O. Fr., morfier; cf., Ital., morfire or morfizzare);
cacher (popular = to stow away); se mettre quelque chose dans le
cadavre (popular = to stoke); se lester la cale (nautical: to lay in
ballast); se graisser les balots (thieves’: to grease the gills); se
caresser (to do oneself a good turn); effacer (popular = to put away);
travailler pour M. Domange (popular: M. Domange was a famous goldfinder
or gong farmer [q.v.]); clapoter (popular); debrider la margoulette
(popular = to put one’s nose in the manger); croustiller (popular);
charger pour la guadaloupe (popular); travailler pour Jules (common:
Jules = Mrs. Jones); se faire le jabot (popular, jabot = stomach);
jouer des osanores (popular: osanores = teeth); casser (thieves’);
claquer (familiar = to rattle one’s ivories); klebjer (popular); faire
trimer les mathurins (popular = to make the running with one’s teeth);
se coller quelque chose dans le bocal (common: bocal = paunch);
estropier (popular = to maim); passer à galtos (nautical); bourrer la
paillasse (common = to stuff the mattress); faire trimer le battant
(thieves’); jouer des mandibules (popular); s’emplir le gilet (popular
= to fill one’s waistcoat); se garnir le bocal (popular: to furnish
one’s paunch); se suiver la gargarousse (nautical: also = to drink);
babouiner (popular); charger la canonnière (popular: canonnière = the
breech); gousser (popular); gouffier (obsolete).
German Synonyms.—Achile, Achelinchen, or Acheliniken (from Heb. Ochal);
Achelputz (from Heb. ochal + putzen from O.H.G. bizan or pizzan = to
eat).
Italian Synonyms.—Artibrio; and, verbally, sbattere (= to beat, to
struggle); intappare il fusto (= to bung the cask); smorfire.
Spanish Synonyms.—Papar (colloquial: from papa = pap); hacer el buche
(low: buche = craw or crop); echar (colloquial); manducar; meter.
1659. Dialogue betwixt an Exciseman and Death, transcribed from a
Copy in British Museum, printed in London by J. C[lark]. I’ll pass
my word this night Shall yield us grub before the morning light.
1725. New Cant. Dict. Grub, s.v., victuals.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, I., 171. How did you procure your
grub and Bub?
1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 149. Bub and Grub. A mighty
low expression, signifying victuals and drink.
1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. iii. Poor Purser! de people
call him Purser, sir, because him knowing chap; him cabbage all de
grub, slush, and stuff in him own corner.
d. 1842. Maginn, Vidocq’s Song. Any bubby and grub, I say?
1857. Thackeray, Shabby Genteel Story, ch. i., p. 9. He used to ...
have his grub too on board.
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. i., p. 45. I at once
congratulated myself on not being a large eater, as there was no
doubt but my grub would run very short if it depended on my
oakum-picking.
1889. Star, 3 Dec., p. 2, c. 6. Of course it was grub. It was for
food, the food for which they beg, and steal, and go willingly to
prison, for a certain good square meal of meat.
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 154. That sad, sad
secret about Mary would keep him in grub for the next day or two at
‘The Rose in Bloom.’
2. (old).—A short thick-set man; a dwarf. In contempt. For synonyms,
see Hop-o’-my-Thumb.