Definition of "grit" in English

noun

1. 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.

2. Small, hard, inedible particles in food.

   • These cookies seem to have grit from nutshells in them.

3. A measure of the size of abrasive grains, such as those on sandpaper, and thus their relative coarseness or fineness; the smaller the number, the coarser the abrasive: thus, 60 is rough, 600 is fine, and 3000 is ultrafine.

   • I need a sheet of 100 grit sandpaper.

4. (geology) A hard, coarse-grained siliceous sandstone; gritstone. Also, a finer sharp-grained sandstone, e.g., grindstone grit.

5. (idiomatic) Strength of mind; courage or fearlessness; fortitude.

   • That kid with the cast on his arm has the grit to play dodgeball.

verb

1. Apparently only in grit one's teeth: to clench, particularly in reaction to pain or anger.

   • We had no choice but to grit our teeth and get on with it.
   • He has a sleeping disorder and grits his teeth.

2. To cover with grit.

3. (obsolete, intransitive) To give forth a grating sound, like sand under the feet; to grate; to grind.

noun

1. (usually in the plural) Husked but unground oats.

2. (usually in the plural) Coarsely ground corn or hominy used as porridge.

   • grits and eggs
   • ham and grits