Word.ws English Dictionary

meatgrinder

/ˈmiːtɡɹaɪndə(ɹ)/

meatgrinder noun: a device for cutting meat into very small pieces.

meatgrinder: a device for cutting meat into very small pieces
Image: Jollymon001, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

meatgrinder (plural meatgrinders)

  1. A device for cutting meat into very small pieces.
    • Keep your fingers away from the throat of the meatgrinder.
  2. (informal) An activity with a high casualty or attrition rate, such as a military battle or an occupational or athletic activity.
    • The mountainous second day of the race was a real meatgrinder, with 20% of racers dropping out.
    • Last year’s lightning advances gave way to local stalemates and a meatgrinder battle for Kobani, where ISIL troops massing to attack the Kurds on the ground made themselves easy targets for the Americans in the air.2015 February 11, Sydney Freedberg, 4,817 Targets: How Six Months Of Airstrikes Have Hurt ISIL (Or Not)
  3. (informal) A process that is likely to be injurious in a non-physical way.
    • Senate confirmation hearings are a real meatgrinder, discouraging people from government service.
    • A world all too ready to swallow Their Kind in its all consuming meat grinder.1980 April 19, Andrea Loewenstein, “Random Lust”, in Gay Community News, page 10

meatgrinder meaning in Arabic, Persian and Vietnamese

meatgrinder in Arabic

device for cutting meat
فَرّامَةُ لَحْم farrāmatu laḥm

meatgrinder in Persian

device for cutting meat
چرخ گوشت čarx-e gušt

meatgrinder in Vietnamese

device for cutting meat
máy băm thịt

Forms of meatgrinder

pluralmeatgrinders
alternative formmeat grinder
alternative formmeat-grinder

Origin of meatgrinder

From meat + grinder.

Questions about meatgrinder

What does meatgrinder mean?
Meatgrinder means a device for cutting meat into very small pieces.
What is meatgrinder in Arabic?
Meatgrinder in Arabic is فَرّامَةُ لَحْم (farrāmatu laḥm). See Meatgrinder meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is meatgrinder?
Meatgrinder is a noun.
How do you pronounce meatgrinder?
Meatgrinder is pronounced /ˈmiːtɡɹaɪndə(ɹ)/.
What is the plural of meatgrinder?
The plural of meatgrinder is meatgrinders.

Words near meatgrinder in the dictionary

  1. meatfluencer
  2. meatfluencers
  3. meatfork
  4. meatforks
  5. meatful
  6. meatgrinder
  7. meatgrinders
  8. meath
  9. meathe
  10. meathead
  11. meatheaded

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: meatgrinder (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-meatgrinder.wav.

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