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Meaning & use

grit your teeth

verb, phrase·Advanced

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UK/ˌɡrɪt jɔː ˈtiːθ/
US/ˌɡrɪt jɔːr ˈtiːθ/

Meanings

  1. verbtransitive

    To press your teeth firmly together, often from anger, pain or effort.

    Grammar: Takes teeth as the object and changes with the subject: he gritted his teeth.

    Patterns

    • grit your teeth against something
    • grit your teeth and do something

    She gritted her teeth as the nurse cleaned the wound.

    He gritted his teeth in frustration while the printer jammed again.

    I could see him gritting his teeth to keep from shouting.

  2. phraseidiomfigurative

    To force yourself to face something unpleasant with determination and without complaining.

    Grammar: Often followed by and plus a verb: grit your teeth and finish the job.

    Patterns

    • grit your teeth and get on with something
    • grit your teeth and bear it

    You will just have to grit your teeth and finish the report tonight.

    We gritted our teeth and sat through the long meeting.

    The team gritted their teeth and kept running through the rain.

Word forms

third person singulargrits his or her teeth
past tensegritted
past participlegritted
-ing formgritting

Common combinations

grit your teeth and bear it
It is a boring job, but grit your teeth and bear it.
grit your teeth and carry on
She gritted her teeth and carried on despite the pain.
through gritted teeth
He thanked them through gritted teeth.
grit your teeth against the pain
The runner gritted his teeth against the pain in his leg.
have to grit your teeth
Sometimes you just have to grit your teeth.

Synonyms and how they differ

bite the bullet
Bite the bullet stresses deciding to face an unavoidable unpleasant task, while grit your teeth stresses the effort of enduring it.
persevere
Persevere is more formal and neutral and does not give the picture of clenched effort.
tough it out
Tough it out is more informal and means to endure hardship until it ends.
clench your teeth
Clench your teeth describes only the physical action and does not necessarily mean enduring something.

Opposites

give up

Word family

grit noun
courage and determination, or small pieces of stone
gritty adjective
containing grit, or showing toughness and realism
gritted adjective
pressed tightly together, as in gritted teeth
grit verb
to press together, or to spread grit on a road

Commonly confused: grit your teeth or grind your teeth?

grit your teeth vs grind your teeth

Grind your teeth means to rub the teeth together, often in sleep, and is not an idiom about enduring things.

Practice

The dentist said it would hurt, so Mia ____ and waited for it to be over.

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