Word.ws English Dictionary

gritting one's teeth

gritting one's teeth is the present participle and gerund of grit one's teeth.

Meaning of grit one's teeth

Verb

grit one's teeth (third-person singular simple present grits one's teeth, present participle gritting one's teeth, simple past and past participle gritted one's teeth or (nonstandard) grit one's teeth)

  1. To clench one's teeth together tightly because of pain, anger, frustration, or self-assurance.
    • [Shield Knight] LOOKED WITH DREAD THROUGH THE EYES OF THE ENCHANTRESS. SHE WAS TRAPPED AGAIN! SHIELD KNIGHT GRIT HER TEETH. SHOVEL KNIGHT WOULDN'T GIVE UP, AND NEITHER WOULD SHE.2019 December 10, Yacht Club Games, "Story" (Shield Knight), in Shovel Knight Showdown (version 4.1), Nintendo Switch, scene: ending
  2. (idiomatic) To face up to a difficult or disagreeable situation and deal with it.
    • There's a storm coming, so I grit my teeth and start rowing with all my might.

Questions about gritting one's teeth

What is gritting one's teeth the present participle and gerund of?
Gritting one's teeth is the present participle and gerund of grit one's teeth.

Words near gritting one's teeth in the dictionary

  1. grittiest
  2. grittily
  3. grittiness
  4. grittinesses
  5. gritting
  6. gritting one's teeth
  7. grittings
  8. grittish
  9. Grittleton
  10. Gritton
  11. Grittons

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gritting one's teeth (page history and authors); grit one's teeth (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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Cite this entry: “gritting one's teeth.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gritting_one%27s_teeth. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.