Dictionary.com

grindhouse

[ grahynd-hous ]
/ ˈgraɪndˌhaʊs /
Save This Word!

noun Slang.
Also grind house . a burlesque house, especially one providing continuous entertainment at reduced prices.
a movie theater with inexpensive admission pricing that shows low-budget films one after another, throughout the day and all or most of the night.
adjective Slang.
of or relating to the low-budget films shown in these theaters, as exploitation films or B-movies: It’s an old grindhouse flick with cannibals hunting teens through an abandoned warehouse.His art films have a cheap grindhouse aesthetic.
QUIZ
THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?
Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.
Question 1 of 7
In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

Origin of grindhouse

First recorded in 1920–25; grind (in the combined sense “to operate an early movie projector by turning a handle or crank” and “a low-budget film that a studio grinds out”) + house
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use grindhouse in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for grindhouse

grindhouse
/ (ˈɡraɪndˌhaʊs) /

noun
mainly US
  1. a cinema specializing in violent or exploitative films such as martial arts movies from Japan and Hong Kong
  2. (as modifier)a grindhouse film
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
FEEDBACK