as in laboring
to devote serious and sustained effort
grubbing away at the yard work before the first snow of the season
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Recent Examples of grubbing
Double-bass glissandos hint at hands grubbing in the earth, while abrupt moments of concerted action—notably, an accordion wheezing out an F-sharp-minor chord—suggest flickering signals and transmissions.
—
Alex Ross, New Yorker, 18 May 2026
Released in 1958, Attack told of a wealthy heiress, fresh from a stint at a mental institution, who is turned into a giantess and then deals with her philandering husband and his no-good, money-grubbing floozy.
—Borys Kit, HollywoodReporter, 9 Jan. 2026
Alex Ross, New Yorker, 18 May 2026
Released in 1958, Attack told of a wealthy heiress, fresh from a stint at a mental institution, who is turned into a giantess and then deals with her philandering husband and his no-good, money-grubbing floozy.
—Borys Kit, HollywoodReporter, 9 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for grubbing
Verb
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The woodcut birth figures contained in these books were not images drawn from observation—pregnant cadavers for anatomical drawing were hard to come by—but were instead abstracted diagrams of the chaotic diversity of laboring bodies.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
16 June 2026
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Another laboring woman with the same image on her phone.—
Karli Swenson,
The Conversation,
11 June 2026
Verb
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Other roles soon came, including a recurring character on Marlo Thomas’ That Girl as the title character’s always striving agent Harvey Peck.—
Greg Evans,
Deadline,
12 June 2026
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But now, a new crew is striving to rework some of that Barneys magic.—
David Moin,
Footwear News,
11 June 2026
Verb
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The officials described Pakistan’s monthslong effort leading the negotiations, struggling to keep both sides from walking out of the room and a total collapse of the negotiations on multiple occasions.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
14 June 2026
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The third spot, initially expected to go to Martín Zubimendi, now looks more likely to be Fabián Ruiz for the Cape Verde opener, with De la Fuente pragmatic about rotating in the early group games and with Zubimendi struggling for form later on in the club season.—
Sam Leveridge,
Forbes.com,
14 June 2026
Verb
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The seven core collaborators – Kogonada, producer Chung An, producer Christopher Radcliff, producer-cinematographer Benjamin Loeb, and actor-producers Richardson, Mao and Jin Ha – collectively owned the project, splitting responsibilities and working without outside financing.—
Naman Ramachandran,
Variety,
15 June 2026
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Rowland has been taking one of these biologics—Ebglyss—and working with the makers of the medication—Lilly—to increase the awareness of eczema and available treatments.—
Bruce Y. Lee,
Forbes.com,
14 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Grubbing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/grubbing. Accessed 18 Jun. 2026.
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