Meaning & use
grind
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To crush something hard into tiny pieces or powder, usually between two hard surfaces or in a machine.
Grammar: Takes an object: grind the coffee beans.
Patterns
- grind something into something
- grind something up
She grinds fresh pepper over every dish.
The mill grinds wheat into flour.
He ground the spices with a stone.
verbtransitive
To rub something sharp against a hard surface to make it smoother or sharper.
Grammar: Takes an object: grind a knife.
Patterns
- grind something down
- grind something sharp
The craftsman ground the blade until it gleamed.
They ground down the old paint before repainting.
She ground the lens by hand.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To rub together with a harsh scraping noise, or to press firmly and turn.
Grammar: Intransitive for gears or a vehicle: the truck ground to a halt; transitive for body parts: grind your teeth.
Patterns
- grind to a halt
- grind your teeth
The old gears ground noisily as the machine started.
He grinds his teeth in his sleep.
The bus ground up the steep hill.
verbintransitiveinformal
To work very hard at a boring or tiring task for a long time.
Grammar: Often followed by away or through: grind away at homework.
Patterns
- grind away at something
- grind through something
She ground away at her thesis all summer.
The students ground through the practice exams.
He is still grinding at the same dull job.
Word forms
| third person singular | grinds |
|---|---|
| past tense | ground |
| past participle | ground |
| -ing form | grinding |
Common combinations
- grind to a halt
- Traffic ground to a halt in the snow.
- grind coffee
- He grinds the coffee just before brewing.
- grind your teeth
- She grinds her teeth when she is stressed.
- grind down
- Years of poverty ground him down.
- grind away
- I have been grinding away at this report all night.
- freshly ground
- The soup needs freshly ground pepper.
Synonyms and how they differ
- crush
- Crush means to squash with force and does not need to produce a fine powder, as grind does.
- pulverize
- Pulverize is more formal and stresses reducing something completely to dust.
- slog
- Slog is the informal word for hard, dull work and has no sense of crushing.
- sharpen
- Sharpen only covers the blade-honing sense, not crushing or working hard.
Word family
Commonly confused: grind or grinded? grind or ground?
grind vs grinded
The past tense of grind is ground, not grinded, in standard English.
grind vs ground
Ground is also the surface of the earth, which is unrelated to the verb in meaning.
Practice
Yesterday I ____ the coffee beans before making the pot.
Choose one answer.
Ground is the irregular past tense of grind. Grinded is nonstandard, grind is the base form and grounded belongs to a different verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “grind”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.