Grinder

How to spell grinder

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce grinder

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does grinder mean?

1. nounA machine or tool used to crush, sharpen, or reduce something to small pieces or powder.
2. nounAn informal term for a person who works steadily and tirelessly rather than relying on flair.

Grinder in a sentence

• He poured the beans into the grinder before brewing the coffee.

• The coach praised him as a grinder who never skipped a training session.

• The workshop grinder threw off sparks as it sharpened the blade.

• In the office she was the quiet grinder who finished every task on time.

Where does grinder come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word grinder is built from the verb grind, which comes from the Old English grindan, meaning to crush, rub together, or reduce to powder. That verb belonged to a wider Germanic family of words describing the gritty action of scraping things down, and it is distantly related to the word grit. Adding the agent suffix -er, which marks the doer of an action, produced a noun for any person or machine that grinds. By the medieval period it could already name a tool, a person, or a back tooth (a molar, the grinder of food). In American regional speech, particularly in New England, it later took on the unrelated-looking meaning of a large filled sandwich, said to be named for the heavy chewing, or grinding, the dense roll required. The spelling is straightforward once you note it follows the simple grind plus -er pattern, with a long i sound despite the lack of any silent letter trick.

How the word is built

• grind (from Old English grindan: to crush or rub small)
• -er (agent suffix: thing or person that does the action)