Word.ws English Dictionary

witchety grub

witchety grub noun: the large, white, wood-eating larvae of several moths and beetles, especially the species Endoxyla leucomochla, traditionally eaten by Aboriginals in the Australian desert.

witchety grub: the large, white, wood-eating larvae of several moths and beetles, especially the species Endoxyla...
Image: Sputnikcccp, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

witchety grub (plural witchety grubs)

  1. (Australia) The large, white, wood-eating larvae of several moths and beetles, especially the species Endoxyla leucomochla, traditionally eaten by Aboriginals in the Australian desert.
    • I'll think of how the kids come alive walking around sandplains / reading tracks, looking for goannas, digging up witchetty grubs / collecting berries, branches of bush medicines.2022, Meg Mooney, Northern Territory Literary Awards, page 33

witchety grub meaning in Bengali

witchety grub in Bengali

সাদা

Forms of witchety grub

pluralwitchety grubs
alternative formwitchetty grub
alternative formwitjuti grub

Origin of witchety grub

From witchety + grub, a partial calque of some Pama-Nyungan language (compare Arabana mako witjuti (“witchety grub”, from mako (“grub”) + witjuti (“witchety bush”))).

Questions about witchety grub

What does witchety grub mean?
Witchety grub means the large, white, wood-eating larvae of several moths and beetles, especially the species Endoxyla leucomochla, traditionally eaten by Aboriginals in the Australian desert.
What is witchety grub in Bengali?
Witchety grub in Bengali is সাদা. See Witchety grub meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is witchety grub?
Witchety grub is a noun.
What is the plural of witchety grub?
The plural of witchety grub is witchety grubs.

Words near witchety grub in the dictionary

  1. witchetties
  2. witchetty
  3. witchetty grub
  4. witchetty grubs
  5. witchety
  6. witchety grub
  7. witchety grubs
  8. witchfinder
  9. witchfinder general
  10. witchfinders
  11. witchfinders general

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: witchety grub (page history and authors); witchety grub (Bengali 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: en-au-witchety grub.ogg.

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