grits
Americannoun
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Also called hominy grits. (especially in Southern cooking) coarsely ground hominy, or white corn, boiled to a thick consistency and then sometimes fried, eaten as a breakfast dish or as a side dish with meat.
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grain hulled and coarsely ground.
plural noun
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hulled and coarsely ground grain
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See hominy grits
Etymology
Origin of grits
First recorded before 900; Middle English grut(t)a, gryttes (plural) “coarse meal, bran,” Old English gryt(t) “dust, meal”; cognate with German Grütze
Compare meaning
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Explanation
Grits are a savory dish made of ground cornmeal. You can order grits with your eggs at the diner, or try shrimp and grits for dinner. While grits are most popular in the southern United States, they've become more common in other places, particularly as a breakfast dish. Grits, unlike polenta, mash, and other soft, corn-based foods, are made from hominy, a type of corn that's soaked in an alkaline solution before being ground. This traditional Native American dish was passed along to southern colonists in the 17th century. Grits are so popular in the South that the region is sometimes called "the grits belt."
Vocabulary lists containing grits
World Cuisine - Introductory
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World Cuisine - Middle School and High School
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The Color Purple
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The restaurants served up moderately priced country ham, pancakes, eggs and grits.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 25, 2025
During the festival, food available on site includes crawfish bread, pecan catfish meuniere and catfish almondine, cochon de lait and turducken po-boys, boudin, crawfish étouffée, jambalaya, crawfish Monica and shrimp and grits.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 24, 2024
He married those influences with a deep love for South Carolina Lowcountry cuisine like shrimp and grits, fried fish and hoppin’ John.
From New York Times • Mar. 8, 2024
During my period of incarceration, I subsisted on a diet consisting mostly of unsanitary and poorly cooked trays of starches like grits and rice, dehydrated collard greens and canned meat.
From Salon • Jan. 18, 2024
Then she turned her eyes down the counter and saw Colonel Meecham stirring the grits that Hobie had insisted on heaping on his plate.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
