as in overwhelms
to subject to incapacitating emotional or mental stress
the workers are being ground down by the long work hours which leave them little time for anything else
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for grinds (down)
Verb
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What overwhelms her isn’t the wedding itself, but the realization that her lifelong role as Lexi’s default person is about to shift.—
Ashley Vega,
PEOPLE,
28 Jan. 2026 -
But for families with young kids, there is one cost that overwhelms almost everything else — child care.—
Liam Stanton,
Chicago Tribune,
22 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Auburn overcomes a 14-point deficit in the first half and race past the Longhorns behind 31 points from Keyshawn Hall.—
Thomas Jones,
Austin American Statesman,
28 Jan. 2026
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By placing wind turbines in the air, this overcomes land use pressures and also makes the technology more flexible for places like cities.—
Christopher McFadden,
Interesting Engineering,
18 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Michael Winner’s gritty urban thriller starred Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey, an everyman architect who becomes a vigilante after a brutal assault devastates his family.—
Paul Fitzgerald,
Rolling Stone,
13 Nov. 2025
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Americans are used to thinking about automation as something that devastates factory towns in the heartland.—
Eva Roytburg,
Fortune,
2 Oct. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Grinds (down).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/grinds%20%28down%29. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.
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