grinds

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular present of grind.

   The new machine grinds metal edges to a smooth finish.

   Over the centuries, the river grinds the rock into pebbles.

   Note

   The -s form covers every use of the verb, and those uses split on whether an object follows. A mill grinds wheat and a jeweler grinds a lens. But worn gears simply grind, and a skateboarder grinds along a railing, with no object at all. The same spelling also serves as the plural noun, so only the sentence shows whether something is being done or counted.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of grind.

   The relentless grinds of training season tested every player on the squad.

   Coarse and fine grinds produce very different cups of espresso.

   Note

   Most of the nouns behind this plural are also uncountable, so the -s appears only when separate kinds or instances are being counted. Coffee is the clearest case: coarse and fine grinds are different settings. A skateboarder strings several grinds together on a rail. In the older slang for a hard-studying student, grinds were people. Spent coffee is the trap here, because the word for used coffee is a separate and disputed use.

3. 3
   nouncolloquialIrelandcountable

   Tutoring or extra lessons in a particular subject, taken outside regular school hours.

   He signed up for grinds to prepare for his final chemistry exam.

   Many students rely on weekend grinds to keep pace with the syllabus.

   Similartutoring, tuition, lessons

   Note

   An Irish schoolroom word, plural in form, for paid help with a subject outside class. It usually comes with give or get, as in Sally Rooney's Normal People (2018): "Maybe you should give me grinds, Connell." It is colloquial but entirely ordinary in Irish speech. Readers elsewhere may hear it as the noun of drudgery, so it helps to make the tutoring context plain.

4. 4
   noundialectalHawaii

   Food in general; things to eat.

   We packed enough grinds to last the whole camping trip.

   After the long shift, the crew went looking for cheap grinds downtown.

   Similarfood, grub, eats

   Note

   Hawaiian slang, at home in casual talk among friends rather than on menus or in formal writing. Like the Irish tutoring word, it is plural in form but names a general supply rather than items you could count. You go looking for grinds, and you share them. Outside Hawaii it can puzzle listeners, so it is best kept where the local register is shared.

5. 5
   nounnonstandard

   Used ground coffee left over after brewing; spent coffee grounds.

   He scraped the grinds from the filter before washing it out.

   Spent grinds from the cafe were collected daily for the community garden.

   Similargrounds

   Note

   A disputed use. Many careful writers treat it as a slip for coffee grounds, the standard name for what is left in the filter. It still turns up in serious prose: James Baldwin's Another Country (1962) has a kitchen "sandy with coffee grinds." In edited writing, use grounds for the spent coffee. Save grinds for degrees of fineness, as in coarse and fine grinds.

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