Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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GRUSH, v., n. Also †gruss. [grʌʃ]

I. v. 1. To crush, grind, crumble down (Lnk. 1825 Jam.).Lnk. 1818 A. Fordyce Country Wedding 58:
Alas, reputation, thou art but a bubble; A bubble, which malice may grush at its pleasure.Fif. 1827 W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd 173:
To gruss him down intill a graff Withouten kist or bier.Sc. 1871 P. H. Waddell Psalms xxxv. 16:
Wi' trokers o' lies at bousin-bouts, again me their teeth they grush't.

Used adv. = in small crumbs.Lnk. 1818 A. Fordyce Country Wedding 18:
Stop, bride, stop! it's your ain cottage door, See that the bread and the cheese be ready. Quick, get a napkin, her bonnet spread o'er, Grush goes the dreaming-bread; pickl't up, lady!

2. To strew with grit.Peb. 1950:
The roads were grushed during the recent frost to prevent skidding.

II. n. 1. Anything in a crushed or crumbled-down state.Lnk. 1825 Jam.:
It's a' gane to grush . . . It's a' to grush.

2. Specif.: grit, fine gravel or road-metal (Ayr.⁴ 1928; Peb., Dmf. 1955). Also fig.Lnk. 1923 G. Rae 'Mang Lowland Hills 20:
Ay, there's few folk parin' life's auld road-face, An' we're needin' the grush o' a langsyne grace.Lnk. 1948 per Edb.³:
People speak of "gettin a load o grush frae Leadhill," the grush being the fine gravel that comes from the old lead workings.Lnk. 1995 Lanark Gazette 4 May :
Members were also told that the Disabled Access Panel was going to contact the District Council's parks department to ask for a more suitable path round the loch, as the wheels on chairs become locked in the grush there. Lnk. 2003:
Ye'll get grush on yer knee.

Hence grushie, applied to roads whose surface is bad owing to the road-metal not being rolled in or to the influence of rain or frost.Lnk. 1932 per Edb.³:
A friend had asked her about two alternative roads for a car, and she said she did not recommend one because it was very grushie.