grub

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To dig up by or as if by the roots.
• intransitive verb To clear of roots and stumps by digging.
• intransitive verb Slang To obtain by importunity.
• intransitive verb To dig in the earth.
• intransitive verb To search laboriously by or as if by digging; rummage.
• intransitive verb To toil arduously; drudge.
• noun The thick wormlike larva of certain beetles and other insects.
• noun A drudge.
• noun Slang Food.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To dig in or under the ground; hence, to work hard in any way; especially, to make laborious research; search or study closely.
• To eat; take a meal: as, it is time to grub.
• To dig; dig up by the roots: frequently followed by up or out: as, to grub up shrubs or weeds.
• To supply with food; provide with victuals.
• noun In cricket, a ball bowled along the ground. Also called, in the slang of cricket, sneaker and daisy-cutter.
• noun The larva of an insect; especially, the larva of a beetle: as, the white-grub (the larva of Lachnosterna fusca). Also grubworm.
• noun A short thick man; a dwarf: in contempt.
• noun Something to eat; victuals; a provision of food (as the product of grubbing or hard work).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To dig; to dig up by the roots; to root out by digging; -- followed by up.
• transitive verb Slang To supply with food.
• intransitive verb To dig in or under the ground, generally for an object that is difficult to reach or extricate; to be occupied in digging.
• intransitive verb To drudge; to do menial work.
• noun (Zoöl.) The larva of an insect, especially of a beetle; -- called also grubworm. See Illust. of Goldsmith beetle, under goldsmith.
• noun obsolete A short, thick man; a dwarf.
• noun Slang Victuals; food.
• noun a kind of mattock used in grubbing up roots, etc.
• noun Same as Grub hook (below).
• noun a heavy hoe for grubbing.
• noun a plowlike implement for uprooting stumps, breaking roots, etc.
• noun a handsaw used for sawing marble.
• noun a street in London (now called Milton Street), described by Dr. Johnson as “much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems, whence any mean production is called grubstreet.” As an adjective, suitable to, or resembling the production of, Grub Street.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun countable An immature stage in the life cycle of an insect; a larva.
• noun uncountable, slang Food.
• noun obsolete A short, thick man; a dwarf.
• verb To scavenge or in some way scrounge, typically for food.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb ask for and get free; be a parasite
• noun informal terms for a meal
• verb search about busily
• noun a soft thick wormlike larva of certain beetles and other insects