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Grubstake is a linguistic nugget that was dug up during the famous California Gold Rush, which began in 1848. Sometime between the first stampede and the early 1860s, when the gold-seekers headed off to Montana, prospectors combined grub ("food") and stake, meaning "an interest or share in an undertaking." At first grubstake was a noun, referring to any kind of loan or provisions that could be finagled to make an undertaking possible (with the agreement that the "grubstaker" would get a cut of any profits). By the 1870s, grubstake was also showing up as a verb meaning "to give someone a grubstake," and, since at least 1900, shortly after the Klondike Gold Rush, it has been applied to other situations in which a generous benefactor comes through with the funds.
Examples of grubstake in a Sentence
Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 16 Dec. 2022
If someone needed a grubstake, Mother White was there.
—David Reamer, Anchorage Daily News, 27 Mar. 2022
Private capital was a bank loan, a contract between a borrower and lender, or a grubstake raised from family members, friends or business associates.
—The Economist, 4 July 2019
Aaron Robinson, Car and Driver, 27 July 2017
Cite this Entry
“Grubstake.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grubstake. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
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