Noun He shook out his shoes to remove the small rocks and grit. Through resourcefulness and grit, the pioneers survived the winter. Verb the crash victim gritted his teeth as a way of coping with the pain
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
To me, grit is not just a vital leadership skill, but a vital life skill. Gina Mastantuono, Forbes, 12 Aug. 2022 Kneeling, Viktor embraced what was left of his wife, one arm cradling her shoulder, his stubbled chin pressed against the grit on her face. Cara Anna And Mstyslav Chermov, Anchorage Daily News, 8 July 2022 There’s not really much outside of that other than the fight and the grit that this team has. Tom Green | Tgreen@al.com, al, 16 June 2022 The Red Lantern award is given in recognition of the grit required to be in the remote Alaskan wilderness in sub-zero temperatures for longer than any other musher in the 1,000-mile race.Outside Online, 24 Apr. 2022 Zimmerman embodies the grit and grind that makes U.S. players so unique and even more mesmerizing. Nancy Armour, USA TODAY, 28 Mar. 2022 It’s an inspiring portrait, highlighting the grit and grace that Morgan possessed. Monitor Reviewers, The Christian Science Monitor, 17 Mar. 2022 The grit and perseverance that women like Sonja and Queen taught me at a young age remains as well — lessons perhaps rendered more poignant by a fuller picture of the odds stacked against them.New York Times, 14 Mar. 2022 Standing tall and strong on a pair of prosthetic legs, Chris Van Etten is a symbol of grit and determination in his ad for Jockey. Julie Mazziotta, Peoplemag, 26 Aug. 2022
Verb
Many people told Jurkovec to grit it out, but his family knew better. Trevor Hass, BostonGlobe.com, 26 Aug. 2022 That might, for a different team, have been the cue to sit back, to hunch its shoulders and grit its teeth.New York Times, 26 July 2022 Most everybody hates doing this in the moment, but founders who grit their teeth and get through the delegation process give themselves more time. Carl Gould, Forbes, 30 June 2022 For the untold millions who don’t have access to adequate public transportation or otherwise can’t forgo their car, the solution is to grit their teeth and pay while cutting costs elsewhere. Daniel Niemann, BostonGlobe.com, 20 June 2022 On my high school track team, the distance guys were built like deer—lean and long—and able to grit out the pain of running the mile at a blistering pace. Brendan Leonard, Outside Online, 8 May 2020 And yet, when life throws us a curveball, our default is to straighten our backs, grit our teeth and press on. Jeannine Amber, Essence, 3 Apr. 2022 The fortunes of basketball, the accumulating losses and the COVID-19 pandemic that won’t go away forced Thibodeau to grit his teeth and call on Walker again. Dom Amore, courant.com, 22 Dec. 2021 That sets off a feeding frenzy where one buyer — sometimes a reseller with a bot — snags the item, while hundreds more grit their teeth in frustration. Irina Ivanova, CBS News, 14 Dec. 2021 See More
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English greet, grete, going back to Old English grēot, going back to Germanic *greuta- "broken bits of stone, sand, gravel," (whence also Old Saxon griot "sand, gravel," Middle Dutch griet "coarse sand, grit," Old High German grioz, Old Icelandic grjót "gravel, pebbles"), noun derivative of *greutan- "to grind, crush" (whence Old High German gegrozan "coarse-grained," past participle of a presumed strong verb griozan "to crush"), going back to dialectal Indo-European *ghreu̯dH-e/o-, whence, from zero grade, Lithuanian grū́džiu/grū́du, grū́sti "to crush, pulverize"; and from a nominal derivative with o-grade Russian grúda "heap, pile," Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian grȕda "lump, clod"
Note: The form grit (rarely grite) is first attested from the late sixteenth century, alongside the forms greet, greete and griet, which by the nineteenth century are considered dialectal. While the latter clearly continue the Middle and Old English etymon, the source of grit is uncertain, as Middle English ẹ̄ should not result in short i. It has been suggested, as by the Oxford English Dictionary, first edition, that short i has been taken from the vowel of grit in grits. — The Germanic verb is unattested outside of Old High German. The Indo-European base *ghreu̯dH-e/o- has no solidly comparable progeny outside of Germanic and Balto-Slavic. Compare also grits, groats, grout entry 1.
Verb
derivative of grit entry 1, with some senses probably in part phonesthemic and in part influenced by grate entry 3
First Known Use
Noun
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a