grubstake

[gruhb-steyk]

noun

1. provisions, gear, etc., furnished to a prospector on condition of participating in the profits of any discoveries.

2. money or other assistance furnished at a time of need or of starting an enterprise.

verb (used with object)

grubstaked, grubstaking 

1. to furnish with a grubstake.

   I grubstaked him to two mules and supplies enough for five months.

grubstake

/ ˈɡrʌbˌsteɪk /

noun

1. informal,  supplies provided for a prospector on the condition that the donor has a stake in any finds

verb

1. informal,  to furnish with such supplies

2. to supply (a person) with a stake in a gambling game

Other Word Forms

• grubstaker noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of grubstake¹

An Americanism dating back to 1860–65; grub + stake ²

Example Sentences

Musk, for instance, got at least part of his grubstake from an emerald mine his family owned during the apartheid era in South Africa.

From Los Angeles Times

Small-time investors already have fled, their grubstakes or life savings decimated.

From Washington Post

Mr. Trump hasn’t known fact from fiction since the day he called his daddy’s grubstake of $1 million “a small loan.”

From Washington Post

He made a grubstake of, by all accounts, selling black market blue jeans and computers.

From Salon

Both, as it happens, were attributes prized by Charles Lewis Tiffany, who helped found a store that sold stationery and fancy goods in 1837 with a $1,000 grubstake from his father.

From New York Times