[UNDER-1 5 d.]
1. An undergrown or insignificant person.
1822. Blackw. Mag., XI. 362. The less you have to do with the Cockney underscrubs the better.
2. Undergrowth; brushwood.
1894. J. Geikie, Gt. Ice Age (ed. 3), 455. The underscrub being composed chiefly of hazels and occasional birches.
1895. Daily News, 21 May, 6/3. They had been unable to commence cultivation until a clearance had been made of the underscrub.
Hence Underscrubbery, a collection of underscrubs.
1851. G. W. Curtis, Nile Notes, xxv. 116. I saw the Commander assisting the confused crowd of under-scrubbery out of the boat, with his kurbash or whip.
