GRINDING Synonyms: 140 Similar and Opposite Words

grinding 1 of 2

adjective

as in scraping

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grinding

2 of 2

verb

present participle of grind

as in rubbing

to make smooth by friction after they are ground and polished, these stones can be used for jewelry

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as in gritting

to press or strike against or together so as to make a scraping sound everyone in the car winced when the driver ground the gears trying to shift into second

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as in sharpening

to make sharp or sharper better grind down that ax before you even think about trying to cut down that tree

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as in polishing

to make smooth or glossy usually by repeatedly applying surface pressure used the finest polishing paper he could to grind down the facets of the diamond before dusting it with a soft cloth

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as in scratching

to pass roughly and noisily over or against a surface ground the rock against the stone wall

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as in crushing

to reduce to fine particles grind whole coffee beans if you want the freshest coffee

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of grinding

Verb

While the left spent all week whining about Sophie Cunningham's hat and firing squad best practices, us PATRIOTS were biding our time, keeping our heads down, and grinding towards another weekend. — Zach Dean Outkick, FOXNews.com, 9 Oct. 2026 That kind of grinding, directionless uncertainty makes Salesforce an interesting candidate for a neutral, short premium trade. — Julia Spina, CNBC, 6 Oct. 2026 The war turned into a grinding conflict, killing hundreds of thousands of people and spurring successive health crises and famine. — Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 5 Oct. 2026 Hitler wanted more dead, but his early lightning victories—Poland beaten in weeks, France in forty days—had turned into a grinding nightmare for the Nazis. — Literary Hub, 30 Sep. 2026 The Raunchiest Miley Cyrus shocked viewers by stripping down to a nude bikini top and briefs and grinding, twerking and thrusting on fellow performer Robin Thicke at the 2013 show in one of the raciest performances in MTV history. — Kate Hogan, PEOPLE, 24 Sep. 2026 The staff was washing meat cutting and grinding equipment and skipping the sanitizer step. — Sacbee.com, 18 Sep. 2026 The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have become grinding contests over which side can exhaust the other’s military capacity, economic resources, and political will. — Nadia Schadlow, Foreign Affairs, 18 Sep. 2026 Russians began voting Friday in the country’s first parliamentary election since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a vote tightly controlled by the Kremlin in a bid to claim popular backing for President Vladimir Putin’s grinding war. — Yuliya Talmazan, NBC news, 18 Sep. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for grinding

Adjective

If Google can amend its complaint to argue that rights holders directly authorized Google to use its anti-scraping technology to prevent unauthorized access to content, then Google may be able to block a very limited amount of SerpApi’s scraping.

— Ashley Belanger, ArsTechnica, 27 July 2026
Recently, internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare likened the platform to North Korean hackers for bypassing anti-scraping protections on websites.

— PC Magazine, PC Magazine, 7 Aug. 2025

Definition of scraping

Verb

Some of these practices have been reported on before, such as rubbing deodorant against colored pages from magazines to make eye shadow.

— Elizabeth Gulino, Allure, 8 Oct. 2026
The bigger claim making the rounds, that a few minutes of face rubbing can quiet your body’s stress response, is where dermatologists urge a little caution.

— Samantha Agate, Kansas City Star, 1 Oct. 2026

Definition of rubbing

Verb

But credit Skubal for gritting it out each time, keeping the Dodgers in those three games against the Chicago Cubs, the Kansas City Royals and Brewers.

— Mirjam Swanson, Los Angeles Times, 17 Aug. 2026
Showed toughness by gritting through ankle and knee injuries in the Final Four and title game.

— ABC News, ABC News, 23 June 2026

Definition of gritting

Verb

The Moon moves through practical Virgo, sharpening our eye for details, routines, and the small choices that make life easier.

— Tarot.com, Chicago Tribune, 8 Oct. 2026
Israel’s first election since the attack is sharpening anger over security failures and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while public discussion largely overlooks Palestinian civilians’ lives.

— Cara Anna, Los Angeles Times, 7 Oct. 2026

Definition of sharpening

Verb

There may have been a time when hosting a holiday dinner meant pulling out every platter, polishing the silver, and making sure there were enough wine glasses for a small army.

— Jessica Safavimehr, Southern Living, 2 Oct. 2026
The Duchess of Edinburgh even got hands-on experience shaping and polishing a quartz gemstone.

— Meredith Kile, PEOPLE, 17 Sep. 2026

Definition of polishing

Verb

Well, then the sound of television writer Joe Wiseman clearing his throat over and over again might as well be Gilbert Gottfried’s laugh scratching against a chalkboard.

— Whitney Friedlander, Los Angeles Times, 8 Oct. 2026
That tale of two vaccines has experts scratching their heads.

— Amanda Erickson, STAT, 5 Oct. 2026

Definition of scratching

Verb

But the comedian is, of course, looking for ways to make the most out of being a pawn in the crushing game of corporate consolidation.

— Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 12 Oct. 2026
That's a statement win for the Wildcats and a crushing defeat for the Wildcats, who have now lost two so far this season.

— Matt Reigle OutKick, FOXNews.com, 11 Oct. 2026

Definition of crushing

Adjective

This jagged microscopic debris, easily dispersed by meteorite impacts and rocket exhaust, is corrosive, abrasive and adhesive.

— Robin George Andrews, Scientific American, 8 Oct. 2026
This is the man who made the two-and-a-half-hour, stream-of-consciousness passion project Bardo (2022), after all, which several critics also found rather abrasive and self-indulgent.

— Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 7 Oct. 2026