online medical dictionary | definition of grit

1. Sand or gravel; rough, hard particles.

2. The coarse part of meal.

3. Grain, especially. Oats or wheat, hulled and coarsely ground; in high milling, fragments of cracked wheat smaller than groats.

4. <geology> A hard, coarse-grained siliceous sandstone; as, millstone grit; called also gritrock and gritstone. The name is also applied to a finer sharp-grained sandstone; as, grindstone grit.

5. Structure, as adapted to grind or sharpen; as, a hone of good grit.

6. Firmness of mind; invincible spirit; unyielding courage; fortitude.

Origin: OE, greet, greot, sand, gravel, AS. Greot grit, sant, dust; akin to OS griott, OFries. Gret gravel, OHG. Grioz, G. Griess, Icel. Grjot, and to E. Groats, grout. See Groats, Grout, and cf. Grail gravel.

(01 Mar 1998)