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 though.
4. (venery).—To copulate.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Grind, s.v.
5. trans. (American).—To vex; to 'put out.'
1879. W. D. Howells, 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. Clarkson and Richardson. Police, p. 322. On the treadmill . . . grinding wind.
Grinder, subs. (college).—1. A
private tutor; a coach (q.v.).
Cf., Crammer.
1812. Miss Edgeworth, Patronage, ch. iii. Put him into the hands of a clever grinder or crammer, and they would soon cram the necessary portion of Latin and Greek into him.
1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 201. Then contriving to accumulate five guineas to pay a grinder, he routs out his old note books from the bottom of his box and commences to read.
1841. A. Smith, 'The London Medical Student' in Punch, i., p. 229. G was a grinder, who sharpen'd the the fools.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. v. She sent me down here with a grinder. She wants me to cultivate my neglected genius.
2. Usually in. pl. (common).—The teeth.
English Synonyms.—Bones; chatterers; cogs; crashing cheats; dining-room furniture (or chairs); dinner-set; dominoes; front-rails; Hampstead Heath (rhyming); head rails; ivories; park-palings (or railings); snagglers; tushes (or tusks); tomb-stones.
French Synonyms.—Les soeurs blanches (thieves' = the 'white sisters' or ivories); les chocottes (thieves'); les cassantes (thieves' = grinders); les broches (popular = head-rails); les crocs (popular = tusks); le clou de giroflé (common = a decayed, black tooth); les branlantes (popular = the quakers : specifi-
