subs. phr. (common).—1. One who lives by collecting bones from heaps of refuse, selling his spoils at the marine stores, or to bone grinders. Fr. biffin (which also = a foot-soldier, his knapsack being compared to a rag or bone-picker’s basket); chifferton (or chiffortin), cupidon (an ironical allusion to his hook and basket) grappin.
c. 1750. ‘The Bunter’s Wedding,’ quoted in J. Ashton’s The Fleet, 1888, 366.
| Sam the GRUBBER, he having had warning, | |
| His wallet and broom down did lay. |
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, II., 155. The BONE-GRUBBER generally seeks out the narrow back streets, where dust and refuse are cast, or where any dust-bins are accessible. The articles for which he chiefly searches are rags and bones,—rags he prefers,—but waste metals, such as bits of lead, pewter, copper, brass, or old iron, he prizes above all.
1862. H. MAYHEW, The Criminal Prisons of London, 40. A black-chinned and lanthorn-jawed BONE-GRUBBER.
2. (old).—A resurrectionist; a violator of graves: Cobbett was called ‘a BONE-GRUBBER,’ because he brought the remains of Tom Paine from America. Latterly the term includes all having to do with funerals.
1863. G. A. SALA, Breakfast in Bed, essay vii., 181 (1864). The crowd in Cheapside declared that I was a mute. They called me a BONE-GRUBBER.
