Grated

How to spell grated

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce grated

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does grated mean?

1. verbShredded a hard food into small pieces by rubbing it against a rough tool.
2. verbCaused an unpleasant, irritating effect, as a harsh sound or manner.

Grated in a sentence

• She grated a block of cheese over the warm pasta.

• His constant whistling grated on everyone in the open office.

• The recipe called for finely grated carrot and a little ginger.

• The rusty hinge grated loudly each time the door swung open.

Where does grated come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the past form of the verb 'grate', which English took from the Old French grater, meaning 'to scrape' or 'to scratch'. That French word was itself built on a Germanic root, related to forms meaning 'to scratch' that also sit behind the English word 'scratch' itself. The original sense was simply rubbing one surface harshly against another, and from that came both the kitchen sense of shredding hard food against a rough metal tool and the figurative sense of a sound or manner that scrapes unpleasantly on the nerves. The verb arrived in English in the late 1300s. It is worth keeping this 'grate' (to scrape) separate from the unrelated 'grate' meaning a metal framework or fireplace, which descends instead from the Latin cratis, meaning 'wickerwork', even though the two are spelled identically today.

How the word is built

• grate (to scrape, shred)
• -ed (past tense/past participle suffix)