Word.ws English Dictionary

grubstake

grubstake noun: money, materials, tools, food etc. provided to a prospector in return for a share in future profits.

Noun

grubstake (plural grubstakes)

  1. Money, materials, tools, food etc. provided to a prospector in return for a share in future profits.
    • I've been through hell. The other three are all at work and healthy, getting grub-stake to prospect up White River this winter.1918, Jack London, Like Argus of the Ancient Times
  2. An amount of money advanced to someone starting a business in return for a share of the future profits.
  3. Money, necessities stockpiled to sustain an effort for a period of time.
    • No one however should go to this country intending to mine without taking with him a year's supplies commonly known as a grub stake or its money equivalent about $1,000.1903, U.S. Geological Survey professional paper, page 35
    • However, each of these words might, on occasion, be used in a different sense, [...], "grub-stake" to denote one's food supply, regardless of how obtained.1936, Philip Ashton Rollins, The Cow Boy: An Unconventional History of Civilization on the Old-time, page 34

Verb

grubstake (third-person singular simple present grubstakes, present participle grubstaking, simple past and past participle grubstaked)

  1. (transitive) To supply such funds to.
    • "Nobody grub-stakes me," was the answer. "I stake myself, and when I make a killing it's sure all mine. [...] "1910, Jack London, Burning Daylight, part 1 chapter 3

grubstake meaning in Tamil

grubstake in Tamil

முட்டாள்தனமாக

Forms of grubstake

Noun
pluralgrubstakes
alternative formgrub-stake
Verb
third-person singular presentgrubstakes
present participlegrubstaking
past participlegrubstaked
pastgrubstaked

Origin of grubstake

From grub + stake.

Questions about grubstake

What does grubstake mean?
Grubstake means money, materials, tools, food etc. provided to a prospector in return for a share in future profits.
What is grubstake in Tamil?
Grubstake in Tamil is முட்டாள்தனமாக. See Grubstake meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is grubstake?
Grubstake can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of grubstake?
The plural of grubstake is grubstakes.

Words near grubstake in the dictionary

  1. grubroot
  2. grubs
  3. grubs along
  4. grubs out
  5. grubs up
  6. grubstake
  7. grubstaked
  8. grubstaker
  9. grubstakers
  10. grubstakes
  11. grubstaking

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: grubstake (page history and authors); grubstake (Tamil 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)-Wodencafe-grubstake.wav.

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