Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Minute rough granules, as of sand or stone.
- noun The texture or fineness of sand or stone used in grinding.
- noun A coarse hard sandstone used for making grindstones and millstones.
- noun Informal Indomitable spirit; pluck.
- intransitive verb To clamp (the teeth) together.
- intransitive verb To cover or treat with grit.
- intransitive verb To make a grinding noise.
from The Century Dictionary.
- A Scotch variant of
great . - noun Sand or gravel; rough hard particles collectively.
- noun Soil; earth.
- noun In geology, any silicious rock of which the particles have sharp edges, so that it can be used for grinding.
- noun The structure of a stone in regard to fineness and closeness or their opposites: as, a hone of fine grit.
- noun Firmness of mind; courage; spirit; resolution; determination; pluck.
- noun In Canada, an extreme Liberal: so called by the opposite party.
- To give forth a grating sound, as of sand under the feet; grate.
- To grate; grind: as, to
grit the teeth. - noun The coarse part of meal.
- noun plural Oats or wheat hulled or coarsely ground; small particles of broken grain; sizings: as, oaten or wheaten grits.
- noun A kind of crawfish; the sea-crab.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb Collog. To grind; to rub harshly together; to grate.
- intransitive verb To give forth a grating sound, as sand under the feet; to grate; to grind.
- noun Sand or gravel; rough, hard particles.
- noun The coarse part of meal.
- noun Grain, esp. oats or wheat, hulled and coarsely ground; in high milling, fragments of cracked wheat smaller than groats.
- noun (Geol.) A hard, coarse-grained siliceous sandstone; ; -- called also
gritrock andgritstone. The name is also applied to a finer sharp-grained sandstone. - noun Structure, as adapted to grind or sharpen.
- noun Firmness of mind; invincible spirit; unyielding courage; fortitude.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun usually in plural
husked but ungroundoats - noun usually in plural coarsely ground corn or hominy used as porridge
- noun
Collection of hard small materials, such asdirt ,ground stone,debris fromsandblasting or other such grinding,swarf frommetalworking . - noun Inedible particles in food.
- noun A character
trait that encompassescourage ,fearlessness , orguts . - noun A
measure of relativecoarseness of anabrasive material such as sandpaper. - verb To
clench , particularly inreaction topain or anger; apparently only appears in gritting one's teeth. - verb To
cover with grit.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb cover with a grit
- noun fortitude and determination
- verb clench together
- noun a hard coarse-grained siliceous sandstone
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word grit.
Examples
-
A new hero, new problems, and new, but deadly consequences — the grit is about to hit the fan!
Marvel Comics Solicitations for December 2006 | Major Spoilers - Comic Book Reviews and News 2009
-
Getting science right - Fringe's gentle pokes at parapsychology, BSG (I will believe any science if enough grit is rubbed on it), and anything computer-y said in The Big Bang Theory.
-
Hi Diane, I'm working on an article, but for now this is how a couple of reader's advisory superstars define rough south; although, they call it grit lit.
Father of the "Rough South" Genre ____Maggie 2008
-
There's nothing like being on a third story roof and the fine grit from the shingles acting like marbles under your feet, making you slide toward the edge with nothing to grab to stop your fall ....
Fear wen_spencer 2008
-
Imagine a world where microwave-beaming rovers cook dust into concrete landing pads … where your living quarters are dropped onto the land from above, then inflated like an inner tube … where the grit is so abrasive that even the robots have to wear protective coveralls.
-
No it's not QUITE the same as dodging RPGs in Sadr City, but some real grit is required.
-
And quite frequently, dust in the air produces colored rain, like the red-tinted rain that dropped fine grit from the Sahara over southern England in 1968.
Is it raining aliens? Edward Willett 2006
-
For Robert Wilonsky, The Pursuit of Happyness "is too emotionally slick to work, too visually glib to have an impact, made by people who think grit is something that's brought in by the prop department."
-
And quite frequently, dust in the air produces colored rain, like the red-tinted rain that dropped fine grit from the Sahara over southern England in 1968.
Archive 2006-06-04 Edward Willett 2006
-
Today that same grit is rebuilding a city's infrastructure, one that has been gutted by white flight to the suburbs, poor schools and high unemployment.
USATODAY.com - To help its troubled image, Detroit puts on Sunday best 2006
yarb commented on the word grit
Citation (as verb of sound / motion) on pung.
April 3, 2010