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Added 9 October 2026

grit

/ɡɹɪt/ noun

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about grit at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A collection of hard small materials, such as dirt, ground stone, debris from sandblasting or other such grinding, or swarf from metalworking.
The flower beds were white with grit from sand blasting the flagstone walkways.
Sand or a sand–salt mixture spread on wet and, especially, icy roads and footpaths to improve traction.
Small, hard, inedible particles in food.
These cookies seem to have grit from nutshells in them.

verb

To clench (one's teeth), particularly in reaction to pain or anger.
We had no choice but to grit our teeth and get on with it.
To cover with grit.
To give forth a grating sound, like sand under the feet; to grate; to grind.

noun

Husked but unground oats.
Coarsely ground corn or hominy used as porridge.
grits and eggs

Origin

With early modern vowel shortening, from Middle English grete, griet, from Old English grēot, from Proto-West Germanic *greut, from Proto-Germanic *greutą. Compare grist.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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