Word.ws English Dictionary

grind down

grind down verb: to make something hard smaller and smoother by gradually rubbing off tiny bits; to wear down by grinding action.

Verb

grind down (third-person singular simple present grinds down, present participle grinding down, simple past and past participle ground down)

  1. (transitive) To make something hard smaller and smoother by gradually rubbing off tiny bits; to wear down by grinding action.
    • The old dog's teeth had been ground down by constant use.
  2. (idiomatic, transitive) To weaken someone's morale over a long period.
    • Djokovic broke twice in each of the opening two sets, dismantling 6ft 8in Anderson's service game and grinding him down in the rallies.2018 July 15, Jonathan Jurejko, “Novak Djokovic wins fourth Wimbledon by beating Kevin Anderson”, in BBC Sport
    • I'm living in a world where I don't really fit
      Every day walking through the same old shit
      I'm gonna get my gun, gonna get prepared
      I'm not impressed and I'm not scared
      Don't let the bastards grind you down!
      Don't let them grind you down!
      Don't let the bastards grind you down!
      Don't let them grind...1997, The Toasters, Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down

Forms of grind down

third-person singular presentgrinds down
present participlegrinding down
past participleground down
pastground down

Questions about grind down

What does grind down mean?
Grind down means to make something hard smaller and smoother by gradually rubbing off tiny bits; to wear down by grinding action.
What part of speech is grind down?
Grind down is a verb.
What is the past tense of grind down?
The past tense of grind down is ground down.

Words near grind down in the dictionary

  1. grinchily
  2. grinching
  3. Grinchmas
  4. grinchy
  5. grind
  6. grind down
  7. grind joint
  8. grind joints
  9. grind line
  10. grind lines
  11. grind one's gears

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: grind down (page history and authors). 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-grind down.ogg.

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