drub

English

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /dɹʌb/
- Audio (Southern England): (file)
(Northern England, Ireland) IPA^(key): /dɹʊb/
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)

(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, 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 drubbe, drubba (“to hit hard, strike with force, kill”).^[2]

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

Verb

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

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

Derived terms

Translations

to beat with a stick

Arabic: ضَرَبَ (ar) (ḍaraba)
Danish: banke (da), prygle, tæske (da)
Esperanto: bastoni
French: bâtonner (fr), fustiger (fr)
German: prügeln (de)
Irish: greasáil, gread
Italian: bastonare (it), fustigare (it)
Latin: battuo, fustigo
Norman: quétilyi
Norwegian:
Bokmål: pryle (no), drepe (no)
Russian: колоти́ть (ru) (kolotítʹ)
Swedish: prygla (sv)

References

^ “drub”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), “*drupp/bōn- 1”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎^[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 105

Anagrams

BrdU, Burd, brud, burd

[1] “drub”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

[2] Kroonen, Guus (2013), “*drupp/bōn- 1”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎^[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 105

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