grit

See also Grit

English

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈɡɹɪt/, X-SAMPA: /"grIt/
• Rhymes: -ɪt

Etymology 1

With early modern vowel shortening, from Middle English grete, griet, from Old English grēot, from Proto-Germanic *greutą (compare German Grieß, Swedish gryta), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰr-eu-d- (compare Lithuanian grúodas ‘frost; frozen street dirt’, Serbo-Croatian grȕda ‘lump’).

Noun

grit (uncountable)

1. Collection of hard small materials, such as dirt, ground stone, debris from sandblasting or other such grinding, swarf from metalworking.

   The flower beds were white with grit from sand blasting the flagstone walkways.

2. Inedible particles in food.

   Tastes like grit from nut shells in these cookies.

3. A character trait that encompasses courage, fearlessness, or guts.

   That kid with the cast on his arm has the grit to play dodgeball.

4. A measure of relative coarseness of an abrasive material such as sandpaper.

   I need a sheet of 100 grit sandpaper.

Derived terms

• grits
• gritty

Related terms

• grind
• grindstone
• sand, sandy, sandblasting

See also

• debris
• mortar and pestle
• swarf

Translations

collection of hard materials

• Finnish: puru (fi), pöly (fi), kivipöly (fi), metallipuru (fi)
• French: gravillon (fr)

• German: Split (de) m, Schotter (de) m, Streu (de) f, Grieß (de) m, Streumittel (de) n, Streugut (de) n, Schrot (de) n

inedible particles in food

• Finnish: puru (fi)

• German: Ballaststoff (de) m, Grieß (de), Schrot (de) m

character trait

• Finnish: sisukkuus (fi), sisu (fi)
• French: cran (fr)

• German: Mut (de) m, Schneid (de) m
• Italian: grinta (it)

measure of coarseness

• Finnish: karkeus (fi)

• German: Korn (de) n, Körnung (de) f

Verb

grit (third-person singular simple present grits, present participle gritting, simple past and past participle gritted)

1. To clench, particularly in reaction to pain or anger; apparently only appears in gritting one's teeth.

   We had no choice but to grit our teeth and get on with it.

   He has a sleeping disorder and grits his teeth.

2. To cover with grit.

Derived terms

• grit one's teeth

Translations

to clench

• Dutch: knarsen (nl)
• Finnish: narskutella (fi), purra (fi) hammasta (fi)
• French: Grincer (fr)

• German: knirschen (de)
• Romanian: scrâșni (ro)

to cover with grit

• Finnish: peittää (fi) purulla (fi)

• Welsh: graeanu (cy)

Etymology 2

Middle English gryt ‘bran, chaff’, from Old English grytt, from Proto-Germanic *grutjan ‘coarsely ground bits’ (compare Dutch grut, German Grütze), ablaut variant of Proto-Indo-European *gʰr-eu-d-. See above.

Noun

grit (plural grits)

1. (usually in plural) husked but unground oats
2. (usually in plural) coarsely ground corn or hominy used as porridge

Related terms

• grout
• gruel

Translations

husked but unground oats

• Finnish: kauraryyni (fi)

Anagrams

• girt
• trig