subs. (common).—1. A walk; a constitutional: e.g., ‘to take a GRIND’ or (university) ‘to go on the Grandchester (or Gog Magog Hills) GRIND.’
2. (common).—Daily routine; hard or distasteful work.
1853. REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, pt. III., ch. xi. To a University man, a GRIND did not possess any reading signification, but a riding one. In fact, it was a steeple-chase, slightly varying in its details according to the college that patronised the pastime.
1870. London Figaro, 28 July. The world is a wearisome GRIND, love, Nor shirk we our turn at the wheel.
1880. A. TROLLOPE, The Duke’s Children, ch. xxv. ‘Isn’t it a great GRIND, sir?’ asked Silverbridge. ‘A very great GRIND, as you call it. And there may be the GRIND and not the success. But——’
1880. One and All, 27 March, p. 207. Soul-weary of life’s horrid GRIND, I long to come to thee.
3. (schools’).—Study; reading up for an examination; also a plodding student, i.e., a GRINDER.
1856. T. HUGHES, Tom Brown’s School-days, pt. II., ch. v. ‘Come along, boys,’ cries East, always ready to leave the GRIND, as he called it.
1887. Chambers’s Journal, 14 May, p. 310. Smalls made just such a goal as was required, and the GRIND it entailed was frequently of no slight profit to him.
4. (medical students’).—A demonstration: as (1) a ‘public GRIND’ given to a class and free to all; and (2) a ‘private GRIND’ for which a student pays an individual teacher. In America, a QUIZ (q.v.).
5. (Oxford University).—Athletic sports. Also, a training run.
1872. Chambers’s Journal, April. Joe Rullock, the mighty gymnasiarch, the hero of a hundred GRINDS, the unwearied haunter of the palæstra, could never give the lie to his whole past life, and deny his own gymnastics.
6. (venery).—An act of sexual intercourse: e.g., TO DO A GRIND. [MILL and GRINDSTONE (venery) = the female pudendum.] For synonyms, see GREENS and RIDE.
1598. FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Macinio, the GRINDING of grist. Also taken for carnal copulation.
1647. Ladies Parliament. Digbie’s lady takes it ill, that her Lord GRINDS not, at her mill.
THE GRIND, subs. phr. (Cambridge University).—The ferry-boat at Chesterton.
Verb. (university).—1. To prepare for examination; to study: to read.
1856. T. HUGHES, Tom Brown’s School-days, pt. II., ch. vii. ‘The thing to find out,’ said Tom meditatively, ‘is how long one ought to GRIND at a sentence without looking at the crib.’
2. (university).—To teach; to instruct; TO COACH (q.v.).
3. (common).—To do a round of hard and distasteful work; to apply oneself to daily routine.
1880. Punch, 5 June, p. 253, ‘Fred on Pretty Girls and Pictures.’
| And the ‘pars’ in the Scanmag—he does them—are proper, and chock full of ‘go.’ | |
| Only paper I care to GRIND through, never preachy, or gushing, or slow! |
4. (venery).—To copulate.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. GRIND.
5. trans. (American).—To vex; to ‘put out.’
1879. W. D. HOWELLS, The Lady of the Aroostook, ch. vii. After all, it does GRIND me to have lost that money!
Also GRINDING = (1) the act of reading or studying hard; (2) the act or occupation of preparing students, for an examination; and (3) the act of copulation.
ON THE GRIND, subs. phr. (venery).—Said of incontinent persons of both sexes. Also of prostitutes.
TO GRIND AN AXE.—See AXE.
TO GET A GRIND ON ONE, verb. phr. (American).—To play practical jokes; to tell a story against one; to annoy or vex.
TO GRIND WIND, verb. phr. (old prison).—To work the treadmill. See EVERLASTING STAIRCASE.
1889. C. T. CLARKSON and J. HALL RICHARDSON, Police! p. 322. On the treadmill … GRINDING WIND, on the steel, everlasting staircase.
