grind

1 verb past tense and past participle ground,

1 INTO SMALL PIECES (T)

a) also grind up (T) to break something such as corn or coffee beans into small pieces or powder, either in a machine or between two hard surfaces

b) AmE to cut food, especially raw meat, into very small pieces by putting it through a machine: mince 1 (1) BrE

2 SMOOTH/SHARP (T) to make something smooth or sharp by rubbing it on a hard surface or by using a machine: a stone for grinding knives and scissors | The lenses are ground to a high standard of precision.

3 PRESS STH DOWN (transitive always + adv/prep) to press something down into a surface and rub it with a strong twisting movement: grind sth into/in: He dropped a cigar butt and ground it into the carpet with his heel.

4 grind your teeth to rub your upper and lower teeth together making a noise

5 grind to a halt

a) if a vehicle grinds to a halt, it stops gradually: Traffic ground to a halt as it approached the accident site.

b) if a country, organization, or process grinds to a halt, it gradually stops working: As more and more workers joined the strike, Britain's economy was grinding to a halt.

6 grind the faces of the poor to make poor people work very hard and give them almost nothing in return

—see also: have an axe to grind axe 1 (4) grind sb down phrasal verb (T) to treat someone in a cruel way for such a long time that they lose all courage and hope; oppress: Years of dictatorship had ground the people down. grind on phrasal verb (I) to continue for an unpleasantly long time: Winter grinds on until March. grind sth out phrasal verb (T) to produce information, writing, music etc in such large amounts that it becomes boring: Frank just keeps grinding out detective stories. 2 noun

1 (singular) something that is hard work and physically or mentally tiring: I find the journey to work a real grind. | the daily grind (=things that you have to do every day that are boring)

2 (C) AmE informal a student who never does anything except study; swot 1