Chapter Grog to Guards of the Pole of G by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

one's authority; not to budge from one's position; to retain one's popularity.
   To lose ground. To become less popular or less successful; to be drifting away from the object aimed at.
   To stand one's ground. Not to yield or give way; to stick to one's colours; to have the courage of one's opinion.

Ground Arms (To). To pile or stack military arms, such as guns, on the ground (in drill).

Groundlings Those who stood in the pit, which was the ground in ancient theatres.

"To split the ears of the groundlings."
Shakespeare: Hamlet, iii. 2.

Grove The "grove" for which the Jewish women wove hangings, and which the Jews were commanded to cut down and burn, was the wooden Ashera, a sort of idol symbolising the generative power of Nature.

Growlers and Crawlers. The fourwheel cabs; called "growlers" from the surly and discontented manners of their drivers, and "crawlers" from their slow pace

"Taken as a whole, the average drivers of hansom cabs ... are smart, intelligent men, sober, honest, and hardworking. ... They have little ... in common with the obtrusive, surly, besotted drivers of the `growlers' and `crawlers.' " - Nineteenth Century, March, 1893, p. 473

Grub Street Since 1830 called Milton Street, near Moorfields, London, once famous for literary hacks and inferior literary productions. The word is the Gothic graban (to dig), whence Saxon grab (a grave) and groep (a ditch). (See Dunciad, i. 38, etc.)

Gruel To give him his gruel. To kill him. The allusion is to the very common practice in France, in the sixteenth century, of giving poisoned possets - an art brought to perfection by Catherine de Medicis and her Italian advisers.

Grumbo A giant in the tale of Tom Thumb. A raven picked up Tom, thinking him to be a grain of corn, and dropped him on the flat roof of the giant's castle. Old Grumbo came to walk on the roof terrace, and Tom crept up his sleeve. The giant, annoyed, shook his sleeve, and Tom fell into the sea, where a fish swallowed him, and the fish, having been caught and brought to Arthur's table, was the means of introducing Tom to the British king, by whom he was knighted. (Nursery Tale: Tom Thumb.)

Grundy What will Mrs. Grundy say? What will our rivals or neighbours say? The phrase is from Tom Morton's Speed the Plough. In the first scene Mrs. Ashfield shows herself very jealous of neighbour Grundy, and farmer Ashfield says to her, "Be quiet, wull ye? Always ding, dinging Dame Grundy into my ears. What will Mrs. Grundy zay? What will Mrs. Grundy think? ..."

Grunth The sacred book of the Sikhs.

Gruyère A town in Switzerland which gives its name to a kind of cheese made there.

Gryll Let Gryll be Gryll, and keep his hoggish mind. Don't attempt to wash a blackamoor white; the leeopard will never change his spots. Gryll is from the Greek gru (the grunting of a hog). When Sir Guyon disenchanted the forms in the Bower of Bliss some were exceedingly angry, and one in particular, named Gryll, who had been metamorphosed by Acrasia into a hog, abused him most roundly. "Come," says the palmer to Sir Guyon,

"Let Gryll be Gryll, and have his hoggish mind.
But let us hence depart while weather serves, and wind."
Spenser: Faërie Queene, book ii. 12

Gryphon (in Orlando Furioso), son of Olivero and Sigismunda, brother of Aquilant, in love with Origilla, who plays him false. He was called White from his armour, and his brother Black. He overthrew the eight champions of Damascus in the tournament given to celebrate the king's wedding- day. While asleep Martano steals his armour, and goes to the King Norandino to receive the meed of high deeds. In the meantime Gryphon awakes, finds his armour gone, is obliged to put on Martano's, and, being mistaken for the coward, is hooted and hustled by the crowd. He lays about him stoutly, and