GRINDSTONE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Grindstone

Translators

Dictionaries

Courses

Other

Home

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/grˈaɪndstˌoʊn/ Listen

noun

Grindstone n. A flat, circular stone, revolving on an axle, for grinding or sharpening tools, or shaping or smoothing objects.

To hold one's nose to the grindstone, To bring one's nose to the grindstone, to oppress one; to keep one in a condition of servitude.

To put one's nose to the grindstone

(a)

to oppress one; to cause one to work hard and steadily.

(b)

to set oneself to a long and arduous task.

To keep one's nose to the grindstone to continue at a long and arduous task; to apply oneself steadily to one's duties. "They might be ashamed, for lack of courage, to suffer the Lacedaemonians to hold their noses to the grindstone."

See images of 'Grindstone'

Etymology of 'Grindstone'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Grindstone" Quotes from Famous Books

... industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business; but to these we must add frugality, if we would make our industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, 'keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die not worth a groat at last. A fat kitchen makes ...

— Brave Men and Women - Their Struggles, Failures, And Triumphs • O.E. Fuller

... Ole were standing grinding chopping knives down in the lower yard. The trough leaked, and Pelle had to pour water on the grindstone out of an old kettle. His happiness could ...

— Pelle the Conqueror, Complete • Martin Andersen Nexo

... them in that way rather than ready for use. As this process of sharpening tools is a very important one, it must be reserved for another place. Should tools be seriously blunted or broken they must be reground. This can be done by the carver, either on a grindstone or a piece of gritty York stone, care being taken to repeat the original bevel; or they may be sent to a tool shop where they are in the habit ...

— Wood-Carving - Design and Workmanship • George Jack

... was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret and self-contained, and solitary as an ...

— A Budget of Christmas Tales by Charles Dickens and Others • Various

... dart to and fro, like young Indians. They rob bird's nests, steal the eggs, pierce them and blow them. They capture the young birds, and are not above killing the parents that fly frantically to the rescue. I knew of boys who ground captured birds to death on a grindstone. Who has not seen a boy fling stones at ...

— Tales of lonely trails • Zane Grey

More quotes...