grist

From Middle English grist, gryst, from Old English grist, gyrst (“the action of grinding, corn for grinding, gnashing”), of obscure origin: possibly from a pre-Germanic substrate language,^[1] or from a derivative of Proto-Germanic *gredaną (“to crunch”), (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer- (“to rub, grind”).^[2] Cognate with Old Saxon gristgrimmo (“gnashing of the teeth”), German Griesgram (“a grumbler, a grouch, peevishness, misery”), Old English gristel (“gristle”).

• IPA^(key): /ɡɹɪst/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪst

grist (countable and uncountable, plural grists)

1. Grain that is to be ground in a mill.
   • 1720, Thomas Hope [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “An Essay on English Bubbles”, in The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift‎, 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.

   • 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.

2. (obsolete) A group of bees.
3. (colloquial, obsolete) Supply; provision.
   • 1719, Jonathan Swift, “The Progress of Beauty”, in The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D.‎, 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.
5. (figurative) Ellipsis of grist for the mill.
   • 1985 August 24, Robert Butler, “Sex More Punished Than Murder”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 7, page 5:

     The judge needed a case with the potential for great emotional impact to gain media coverage for his political career. He was running for judgeship on the Nevada Supreme Court. Nicky and I were in the wrong place at the wrong time. We were available, vulnerable, and expendable for political grist.

   • 2023 November 11, Danny Leigh, “Living on the edge”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 10:

     True stories are embellished, the casts of fictional dramas stuffed with unlikely non-actors. All is grist to what Herzog calls “ecstatic truth”.

• grist mill / gristmill
• grist for the mill (chiefly US)
• grist to the mill (chiefly UK)

• gristle

grist (third-person singular simple present grists, present participle gristing, simple past and past participle gristed)

1. (transitive) To grind in a mill.
   • 1861, Sessional Papers of the Parliament of the Province of Canada:

     […] and another mill is erecting on the same stream near Sparrow Lake, to which a run of stones for gristing will be added.

   • 1892, Annual report of the Department of Indian Affairs, page 70:

     […] it cleaned out two hundred and ten bushels called screenings; the balance was sold, gristed and used for seed.

• Grits, girts, grits, strig, trigs

• Audio:

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grist

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

• grisa, griset

grist

1. past participle of grise

• IPA^(key): /ɡriːst/

grīst

1. second/third-person singular present indicative of grīsan

grȋst

1. supine of gristi