Word.ws English Dictionary

drub

/dɹʌb/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Ireland/dɹʊb/

drub noun: carbonaceous shale; small coal; slate, dross, or rubbish in coal.

Noun

drub (usually uncountable, plural drubs)

  1. (Northern England, dialectal, usually) Carbonaceous shale; small coal; slate, dross, or rubbish in coal.

Verb

drub (third-person singular simple present drubs, present participle drubbing, simple past and past participle drubbed)

  1. (transitive) To beat (someone or something) with a stick.
  2. (transitive) To defeat someone soundly; to annihilate or crush.
  3. (transitive) To forcefully teach something.
  4. (transitive) To criticize harshly; to excoriate.

drub meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Kannada and Arabic

drub in Tamil

தடி கொண்டு அடி, படுதோல்வி அடையச் செய், நசுக்கு, மிதி, கடுமையாகக் கண்டி, கட்டாயமாகக் கற்பி

drub in Urdu

کوٹنا, مارنا, پیٹنا, پٹائی کرنا

drub in Kannada

ಹೊಡೆ, ಸೋತುಹೋಗು

drub in Arabic

to beat with a stick
ضَرَبَ ḍaraba

Forms of drub

Noun
pluraldrubs
Verb
third-person singular presentdrubs
present participledrubbing
past participledrubbed
pastdrubbed

Origin of drub

From Middle English *drob, drof, from Old English *drōb, drōf (“turbid; dreggy; dirty”), from Proto-West Germanic *drōbī, from Proto-Germanic *drōbuz (“turbid”).

1625, of uncertain origin: * Perhaps from Arabic ضَرَبَ (ḍaraba, “to beat, hit”), * or perhaps originally from a dialectal word (Kent) drab, variant of drop, dryp, drib (“to beat”), from Middle English drepen (preterit drop, drap, drape (“struck, killed”)) from Old English drepan (“to strike”), from Proto-West Germanic *drepan, from Proto-Germanic *drepaną (“to beat, bump, strike, slay”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreb⁽ʰ⁾- (“to strike, crush, kill”). * Linguist Guus Kroonen suggests that it reflects the Proto-Germanic verb *drubbōną, iterative to *drabaną (“to hit, hew”), as found in Norwegian drubbe, drubba (“to hit hard, strike with force, kill”). Compare also Old Frisian drop (“a blow, beat”), Old High German treffan (“to hit, strike”), Old Norse drepa (“to strike, slay, kill”), Swedish drabba (“to hit, strike”). Compare also dub. More at drape.

Words formed from drub

Words that rhyme with drub

14 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about drub

What does drub mean?
Drub means carbonaceous shale; small coal; slate, dross, or rubbish in coal.
What is drub in Tamil?
Drub in Tamil is தடி கொண்டு அடி, படுதோல்வி அடையச் செய், நசுக்கு. See Drub meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is drub?
Drub can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce drub?
Drub is pronounced /dɹʌb/.
What is the plural of drub?
The plural of drub is drubs.

Words near drub in the dictionary

  1. DRRM
  2. drs
  3. drs.
  4. Drss.
  5. Dru
  6. drub
  7. drubbed
  8. drubber
  9. drubbers
  10. drubbing
  11. drubbings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: drub (page history and authors); drub (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); drub (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); drub (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-drub.wav.

Cite this entry: “drub.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/drub. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.