drub

• IPA^(key): /dɹʌb/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• (Northern England, Ireland) IPA^(key): /dɹʊb/
• Rhymes: -ʌb

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

drub (usually uncountable, plural drubs)

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

• drubly

1625, of uncertain origin:

• Perhaps from Arabic ضَرَبَ (ḍaraba, “to beat, to hit”),^[1]

• 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”).^[2]

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.

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.

• BrdU, Burd, brud, burd