grist
[grist]
- grain to be ground.
- ground grain; meal produced from grinding.
- a quantity of grain for grinding at one time; the amount of meal from one grinding.
- Older Use. a quantity or lot.
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- to grind (grain).
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- grist for/to one's mill, something employed to one's profit or advantage, especially something seemingly unpromising: Every delay was so much more grist for her mill.
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Origin of grist
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for grist
Contemporary Examples
And in their spare time, those cowpunchers, ranchers, and old rodeo riders will use their experiences as grist for cowboy poetry.
After 30 Years of Growth, the Cowboy Poetry Festival Tries to Keep Its Pioneer SpiritJohn L. Smith
February 8, 2014
David Roberts of Grist tweeted Sunday that Ferguson apparently isn't concerned about climate change.
What might sound like grist for late-night comics is, in fact, a serious matter for a reporter.
I envisioned the forensic evidence as grist for either my law class or my blog.
One could not help but applaud, even if the goal was grist to the glory-mill of the Dear Leader.
Historical Examples
Verily, the mills of the gods grind slowly, but what a grist they grind!
Over the Rocky Mountains to AlaskaCharles Warren Stoddard
Behold, then, hungry novel-monger, what grist is here for the mill!
The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar TupperMartin Farquhar Tupper
So that choir troubles are to us only a part of the grist that keeps the mill going.
In Our TownWilliam Allen White
If I were a novelist now all this would be grist for my mill.
The Forester's DaughterHamlin Garland
Some time after, Bishop asked me if my father would grind her grist for her?
The Witch of SalemJohn R. Musick
grist
- grain intended to be or that has been ground
- the quantity of such grain processed in one grinding
- brewing malt grains that have been cleaned and cracked
- grist to the mill, grist to one's mill, grist for the mill or grist for one's mill anything that can be turned to profit or advantage
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Word Origin
Old English grīst; related to Old Saxon grist-grimmo gnashing of teeth, Old High German grist-grimmōn
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
Word Origin and History for grist
n.
Old English grist "action of grinding, grain to be ground," perhaps related to grindan "to grind" (see grind), though OED calls the connection "difficult." Meaning "wheat which is to be ground" is early 15c.; the figurative extension from this sense is from the same date.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper