drub

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɹʌb/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌb

Etymology 1

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

Noun

drub (usually uncountable, plural drubs)

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

Derived terms

• drubly

Etymology 2

1625, of uncertain origin:

• Perhaps from Arabic ضَرَبَ (ḍaraba, “to beat, to 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 drubba (“to fall over”).

Akin to Old Frisian drop (“a blow, beat”), Old High German treffan (“to hit”), Old Norse drepa (“to strike, slay, kill”). Compare also dub. More at drape.

Verb

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

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

Derived terms

• drubbing

Translations

References

Anagrams

• BrdU, Burd, brud, burd