grit

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Minute rough granules, as of sand or stone.
2. n. The texture or fineness of sand or stone used in grinding.
3. n. A coarse hard sandstone used for making grindstones and millstones.
4. n. Informal Indomitable spirit; pluck.
5. v. To clamp (the teeth) together.
6. v. To cover or treat with grit.
7. v. To make a grinding noise.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The coarse part of meal.
2. n. plural Oats or wheat hulled or coarsely ground; small particles of broken grain; sizings: as, oaten or wheaten grits.
3. n. Sand or gravel; rough hard particles collectively.
4. n. Soil; earth.
5. n. In geology, any silicious rock of which the particles have sharp edges, so that it can be used for grinding. The best-known grit-rock is the millstone-grit (see that word, and carboniferous), to which belongs much of the rock used in England for grindstones. The best-known and most important gritstone in the United States is the so-called Berea grit or sandstone. See sandstone.
6. n. The structure of a stone in regard to fineness and closeness or their opposites: as, a hone of fine grit.
7. n. Firmness of mind; courage; spirit; resolution; determination; pluck.
8. n. In Canada, an extreme Liberal: so called by the opposite party.
9. To give forth a grating sound, as of sand under the feet; grate.
10. To grate; grind: as, to grit the teeth.
11. n. A kind of crawfish; the sea-crab.
12. A Scotch variant of great.

Wiktionary

1. n. usually in plural husked but unground oats
2. n. usually in plural coarsely ground corn or hominy used as porridge
3. n. Collection of hard small materials, such as dirt, ground stone, debris from sandblasting or other such grinding, swarf from metalworking.
4. n. Inedible particles in food.
5. n. A character trait that encompasses courage, fearlessness, or guts.
6. n. A measure of relative coarseness of an abrasive material such as sandpaper.
7. v. To clench, particularly in reaction to pain or anger; apparently only appears in gritting one's teeth.
8. v. To cover with grit.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Sand or gravel; rough, hard particles.
2. n. The coarse part of meal.
3. n. Grain, esp. oats or wheat, hulled and coarsely ground; in high milling, fragments of cracked wheat smaller than groats.
4. n. (Geol.) A hard, coarse-grained siliceous sandstone; ; -- called also gritrock and gritstone. The name is also applied to a finer sharp-grained sandstone.
5. n. Structure, as adapted to grind or sharpen.
6. n. Firmness of mind; invincible spirit; unyielding courage; fortitude.
7. v. To give forth a grating sound, as sand under the feet; to grate; to grind.
8. v. Collog. To grind; to rub harshly together; to grate.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. cover with a grit
2. n. fortitude and determination
3. v. clench together
4. n. a hard coarse-grained siliceous sandstone