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Glite Dictionary
grubbily

grubbily

5.7
In a dirty, untidy way
  • adverb
  • /ˈɡrʌbɪli/
translation icon : de manera sucia
  • The restaurant had a grubbily unkempt appearance that made us leave.

Examples

  • Her clothes were grubbily stained from working in the garden.

  • Lunch is at a grubbily authentic corrugated tin shack back in town.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • It's Newsweek, but it isn't news; this future has been with us from Bosch and Breugel through Mad Max, grubbily medieval and forever setting up shop just blocks away from where the streets are paved with gold.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • The children played grubbily in the mud after the rain.

Synonyms

grungily
vsgrubbily
8.5

In a dirty, shabby way that looks old and untidy

is more general for being unclean or untidy
dingily
vsgrubbily
7.9

In a dirty, dull way that makes things look old and not fresh

focuses on dirtiness or untidiness rather than dullness

Antonyms

neatly
93 1.0

To do something in a tidy and careful way

cleanly
1.0

Tends to be tidy and free from dirt

How Dirty

filthily
5.3
grubbily
5.7
dirtily
1 1.8
messily
1 1.4
tidily
2 1.6

Surface Forms

grubbily positive

Morphology

grubbily = grubby (transparent) = grubby + ly

Standard adverbial formation by adding '-ly' to the adjective 'grubby', so the meaning is directly derived.

Etymology

Grubbily comes from the simple adjective grubby, which likely comes from grub — either a small worm or the act of digging in the dirt. A helpful way to remember it is to imagine hands or clothes covered in soil, so to do something grubbily is to act 'in a dirty or untidy way'.