grist

From Middle English grist, gryst, from Old English grist, gyrst (“the action of grinding, corn for grinding, gnashing”), from a derivative of Proto-Germanic *gredaną (“to crunch”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrew- (“to rub, grind”). Cognate with Old Saxon gristgrimmo (“gnashing of the teeth”), German Griesgram (“a grumbler, a grouch, peevishness, misery”), Old English gristel (“gristle”). More at gristle.

• IPA^(key): /ɡɹɪst/
• Rhymes: -ɪst

grist (countable and uncountable, plural grists)

1. Grain that is to be ground in a mill.
   • 2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:

     Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.

   • 1720, Jonathan Swift, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift: An Essay on English Bubbles, volume 8:

     That it will, however, cause the subscribers to wish, in their minds, for many oaths to fly about, which is a heinous crime, and to lay stratagems to try the patience of men of all sorts; to put them upon the swearing strain, in order to bring grist to their own mill, which is a crime still more enormous; and that therefore, for fear of these evil consequences, the passing of such an act is not consistent with the really extraordinary and tender conscience of a true modern politician.

2. (obsolete) A group of bees.
3. (colloquial, obsolete) Supply; provision.
   • 1719, Jonathan Swift, The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume 1, volume 1:

     Matter, as wise logicians say, / Cannot without a form subsist; / And form, say I, as well as they, / Must fail if matter brings no grist.

4. (ropemaking) A given size of rope, common grist being a rope three inches in circumference, with twenty yarns in each of the three strands.

• grist mill / gristmill
• it's all grist to the mill

• Grits, girts, grits, strig, trigs

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grist

1. second- and third-person singular present indicative of grissen
2. (archaic) plural imperative of grissen

• grisa, griset

grist

1. past participle of grise