ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: Mullygrubs

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:33:10 GMT

I presume that Steinbeck meant a feeling of gloominess.
For Australians it means what the person said was the way a ball was bowled in cricket.
However for some of us older folk it means a type of native grub of the bush that live in the ground much like a witchety grub, whereby you can catch them by poking a piece of grass down the hole and waiting for the grub to try to remove it and swiftly extracting the grass blade so as to 'catch' the mullygrub on the end.
Hours were spent like that when waiting for parents and to kill time.

Re: Mullygrubs

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:39:04 GMT

My mother used to say this all the time. It means you are going through the "blues" or a short depression.

Re: Mullygrubs

Stannum — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 22:34:59 GMT

G'day Anon,

A mullygrub or mullygrubber is a cricket term.

It refers to a ball bowled that is so tragic that it just rolls along the ground.

The most famous mullygrub ever bowled was by Trevor Chappell against N.Z. in 1981. Google 'underarm bowling'.

A mullygrub is a ball that is rolled along the ground so that the batsman can not score more than one run. It is a sign of a defeated bowler bereft of ideas and resorting to any method to win with no consideration given to the long term ramifications of the actions.

Mully is a variant of muley which refers to cattle with no horns. This shows the lack of danger in the mulligrubber. It is just a 'blah' ball.

Stannum

Re: Mullygrubs

Conchita57 — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 18:45:39 GMT

'Mulligrubs' seems to be a cousin of 'collywobbles'! They both mean 'colic' or 'stomach ache'.

Here is an interesting explanation:

http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-mul1.htm

Mullygrubs

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 17:18:24 GMT

Hi,
could someone explain to me the meaning of this "mullygrubs" I have found reading Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley"?:
'We'd be lousy esplorers. A few days out and we get the mullygrubs.'

Thanks in advance, Jo