Grit Meaning
/ɡɹɪt/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA collection of hard small materials, such as dirt, ground stone, debris from sandblasting or other such grinding, or swarf from metalworking.
nounA collection of hard small materials, such as dirt, ground stone, debris from sandblasting or other such grinding, or swarf from metalworking., Sand or a sand–salt mixture spread on wet and, especially, icy roads and footpaths to improve traction.
Sentence Examples
The council refuses to grit my road.
My university can't afford to grit its car parks.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The sandpaper is covered with tiny ____ that helps to smooth wood.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The athlete's incredible ____ and determination helped her overcome several injuries and win the championship.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"They came to a rising ground , not sharp , but long ; and here youth and grit and sober living told more than ever."
— 1861, Charles Reade, The Cloister and the Hearth; or, Maid, Wife, and Widow. A Matter-of-Fact Romance., New York, N.Y.: Rudd & Carleton; London: Trübner & Co.:
"If you are overcome by a man of grit, he insolently makes you conscious of your own weakness"
— 1880, Edwin Percy Whipple, Success and Its Conditions:
"Although working under very unpleasant conditions they never grumbled, and to the end showed continuous grit; and in addition to this several examples of sheer heroism were displayed."
— 1941 April, “Notes and News: Railwaymen and Snow”, in Railway Magazine, page 178:
"But what their admirers call grit and critics deem shamelessness can overshadow another essential element of the Clinton school: a willingness to put on the hair shirt of humility to regain power."
— 2015 April 15, Jonathan Martin, “For a Clinton, it’s not hard to be humble in an effort to regain power”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 06 Sep 2015:
"The sanded floor that grits beneath the tread"
— 1767, Oliver Goldsmith, An Author's Bedchamber:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The sandpaper is covered with tiny ____ that helps to smooth wood.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The athlete's incredible ____ and determination helped her overcome several injuries and win the championship.