grate

UK/ˈɡɹeɪt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈɡɹɛjt/

grate noun: a horizontal metal grill through which liquid, ash, or small objects can fall, while larger objects cannot. Also the obsolete spelling of great.

Noun

grate (plural grates)

A horizontal metal grill through which liquid, ash, or small objects can fall, while larger objects cannot.
- The grate stopped the sheep from escaping from their field.
- a secret grate of iron bars1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
A frame or bed, or kind of basket, of iron bars, for holding fuel while burning.
- With the exception of two handsome ornaments in front, it has the same appearance as any other parlor grate, yet by a simple scientific evaporating apparatus, from thirty to sixty gallons of water, if required, can be evaporated during the day.1847, editorial staff, “Evaporation Grate”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 3, Issue 9, page 68
(historical) A grapper, a metal ring on a lance behind the grip.
- Lances (only shown at Stoke D'Abernon) were commonly made of ash, about 13 feet long. A ring of metal (grate or grapper) was fastened to the shaft and during a fight[…]1969, Herbert Walter Macklin, Monumental Brasses
- […] and a heavy metal ring, called the grate or graper, fastened to the shaft below the grip. The grate rested against the knight's breastplate and relieved the hand and arm of the full shock of contact. The metallic head (or socket) of the war lance was usually leaf shaped, while that of the...1980, The Encyclopedia Americana, volume 16, page 683

Verb (1)

grate (third-person singular simple present grates, present participle grating, simple past and past participle grated)

(transitive) To furnish with grates; to protect with a grating or crossbars.
- to grate a window

Verb (2)

grate (third-person singular simple present grates, present participle grating, simple past and past participle grated)

(transitive) To shred (things, usually foodstuffs), by rubbing across a grater.
- I need to grate the cheese before the potato is cooked.
(intransitive) To make an unpleasant rasping sound, often as the result of rubbing against something.
- The gate suddenly grated. It was Lestiboudois; he came to fetch his spade, that he had forgotten. He recognised Justin climbing over the wall, and at last knew who was the culprit who stole his potatoes.1856, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part 3 Chapter X, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
- The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. […] It was nearly eleven o'clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers' barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one's eyes ache, the men's voices grated harshly, and the girls' faces saddened...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
Synonyms:

scrape
(broadly, intransitive) To get on one's nerves; to irritate, annoy.
- She’s nice enough, but she can begin to grate if there is no-one else to talk to.
(broadly, transitive) To annoy.
- one of the issues that's kind of grating me a little bit is weed control.2015, Art Levy in Florida Trend, Roland Martin is a Florida 'Icon'
- News, my good lord Rome […] grates me.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...

Adjective

grate (comparative more grate, superlative most grate)

(obsolete) Serving to gratify; agreeable.
- Coho or Coffee[…]however ingrate or insapory it seems at first, it becomes grate and delicious enough by custom.1677, Sir Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels into Africa and Asia the Great

Also used as

grate is also the obsolete spelling of great.

grate meaning in Tamil, Punjabi and Arabic

grate in Tamil

cooking: to shred by rubbing: துருவு turuvu

grate in Arabic

cooking: to shred by rubbing: بَشَر bašar

Examples of grate in a sentence

Listening to his teeth grate all day long drives me mad.
The chalk grated against the board.
[…] and a heavy metal ring, called the grate or graper, fastened to the shaft below the grip.1980, The Encyclopedia Americana, volume 16, page 683:
In the little fair created by the costers' barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one's eyes ache, the men's voices grated harshly, and the girls' faces saddened one.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

All 40 example sentences with grate

Synonyms of grate

scrape
grill

Forms of grate

Noun
plural	grates
Verb
third-person singular present	grates
present participle	grating
past participle	grated
past	grated
Adjective
comparative	more grate
superlative	most grate

Past tense of grate: grated

Plural of grate: grates

Origin of grate

From Middle English grate, from a Medieval Latin crāta, from a Latin word for a hurdle; or Italian grata, from Latin cratis.

From Middle English graten, from Old French grater (“to scrape”) ( > French gratter), from Frankish *krattōn, from Proto-Germanic *krattōną. Cognate with Old High German krazzon ( > German kratzen (“to scrawl”) > Danish kradse), Icelandic krassa (“to scrawl”) and Danish kratte.

From Latin grātus (“agreeable”).

Words formed from grate

Words that rhyme with grate

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about grate

What does grate mean?: Grate means a horizontal metal grill through which liquid, ash, or small objects can fall, while larger objects cannot.
What is grate in Tamil?: Grate in Tamil is துருவு (turuvu). See Grate meaning in Tamil.
How do you use grate in a sentence?: Listening to his teeth grate all day long drives me mad.
What part of speech is grate?: Grate can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce grate?: Grate is pronounced /ˈɡɹeɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of grate?: The plural of grate is grates.

Words near grate in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: grate (page history and authors); grate (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-grate.ogg.

Cite this entry: “grate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/grate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.