grit

Etymology 1

With early modern vowel shortening, from Middle English grete, griet, from Old English grēot, from Proto-West Germanic *greut, from Proto-Germanic *greutą.

noun

1. A collection of hard small materials, such as dirt, ground stone, debris from sandblasting or other such grinding, or swarf from metalworking.
   The flower beds were white with grit from sand blasting the flagstone walkways.
   1. Sand or a sand–salt mixture spread on wet and, especially, icy roads and footpaths to improve traction.
2. Inedible particles in food.
   These cookies seem to have grit from nutshells in them.
3. A measure of the relative coarseness of an abrasive material such as sandpaper, the smaller the number the coarser the abrasive.
   I need a sheet of 100 grit sandpaper.
4. (geology) A hard, coarse-grained siliceous sandstone; gritstone. Also, a finer sharp-grained sandstone, e.g., grindstone grit.
5. Strength of mind; great courage or fearlessness; fortitude.
   That kid with the cast on his arm has the grit to play dodgeball.
   If you are overcome by a man of grit, he insolently makes you conscious of your own weakness 1880, Edwin Percy Whipple, Success and Its Conditions
   Although working under very unpleasant conditions they never grumbled, and to the end showed continuous grit; and in addition to this several examples of sheer heroism were displayed. 1941 April, “Notes and News: Railwaymen and Snow”, in Railway Magazine, page 178
   But what their admirers call grit and critics deem shamelessness can overshadow another essential element of the Clinton school: a willingness to put on the hair shirt of humility to regain power. 15 April 2015, Jonathan Martin, “For a Clinton, it’s not hard to be humble in an effort to regain power”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2015-09-06

verb

1. Apparently only in grit one's teeth: to clench, particularly in reaction to pain or anger.
   We had no choice but to grit our teeth and get on with it.
   He has a sleeping disorder and grits his teeth.
2. To cover with grit.
3. (obsolete, intransitive) To give forth a grating sound, like sand under the feet; to grate; to grind.
   1767, Oliver Goldsmith, The Hermit The sanded |floor that grits beneath the tread.

Etymology 2

From Middle English *gryt (“bran, chaff”), from Old English grytt, from Proto-West Germanic *gruti (“coarsely ground bits”), ablaut variant of Proto-Indo-European *gʰrewd-. See above. Doublet of goetta.

noun

1. (usually in the plural) Husked but unground oats.
2. (usually in the plural) Coarsely ground corn or hominy used as porridge.