grist

[grist]

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noun

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.

verb (used with object)

to grind (grain).

Idioms

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.

Origin of grist

before 1000; Middle English, Old English; akin to Old English grindan to grind

Related formsgrist·er, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for grist

cereal, corn, kernel, mote, morsel, whit, spark, speck, pellet, scrap, modicum, tittle, iota, jot, trace, fragment, scintilla, molecule, atom, crumb

Examples from the Web for grist

Contemporary Examples of grist

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 Spirit
John L. Smith
February 8, 2014
David Roberts of Grist tweeted Sunday that Ferguson apparently isn't concerned about climate change.
Niall Ferguson and the Future
Michael Tomasky
May 6, 2013
What might sound like grist for late-night comics is, in fact, a serious matter for a reporter.
Sheldon Adelson, the Billionaire Who Bankrupted Me
John L. Smith
February 28, 2013
I envisioned the forensic evidence as grist for either my law class or my blog.
Stop Calling It Murder
Roy Black
September 10, 2011
One could not help but applaud, even if the goal was grist to the glory-mill of the Dear Leader.
Can You Root for North Korea?
Tunku Varadarajan
June 15, 2010

Historical Examples of grist

Verily, the mills of the gods grind slowly, but what a grist they grind!
Over the Rocky Mountains to Alaska
Charles Warren Stoddard
Behold, then, hungry novel-monger, what grist is here for the mill!
The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper
Martin Farquhar Tupper
So that choir troubles are to us only a part of the grist that keeps the mill going.
In Our Town
William Allen White
If I were a novelist now all this would be grist for my mill.
The Forester's Daughter
Hamlin Garland
Some time after, Bishop asked me if my father would grind her grist for her?
The Witch of Salem
John R. Musick

British Dictionary definitions for grist

grist

noun

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

Word Origin for grist

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

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.