Literary notes about grind (AI summary)
The word "grind" is employed with remarkable versatility, straddling literal and metaphorical domains. In some works it describes a tangible, sensory process—illustrating the meticulous preparation of coffee and corn, as well as the audible clamor of milling machinery ([1], [2], [3], [4]). In other contexts, it assumes a more aggressive or symbolic role, evoking images of relentless force or even divine retribution, as when bones are threatened to be ground to dust or when destiny is inexorably fulfilled ([5], [6], [7], [8]). It also metaphorically encapsulates tedious labor and the slow churn of everyday life, providing a rich, evocative term that bridges the physical act of crushing with broader themes of persistence, punishment, and the passage of time ([9], [10], [11]).
- A fine grind (like fine cornmeal) is essential.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - The author has found a fine grind, about the consistency of fine granulated sugar, the most satisfactory.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - [158] SEA BASS, OR BARRACUDA PATINA DE LUPO [1] GRIND PEPPER, CUMIN, PARSLEY, RUE, ONIONS, HONEY, BROTH, RAISIN WINE AND DROPS OF OIL [2].
— from Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome by Apicius - To set up their housekeeping, nothing is requisite but two or three earthen pots, a stone to grind meal, and a mat which is the bed.
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson - Be he alive or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make me bread!”
— from English Fairy Tales - I will grind your bones to dust, And with your blood and it
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - Though the mills of God grind slowly, Yet they grind exceeding small, Though with patience He stands waiting, With exactness grinds He all.
— from The Evidence in the Case A Discussion of the Moral Responsibility for the War of 1914, as Disclosed by the Diplomatic Records of England, Germany, Russia by James M. (James Montgomery) Beck - "Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all."
— from Short Studies in Ethics: An Elementary Text-Book for Schools by John Ormsby Miller - "I don't much wonder, poor dear, for you see other girls having splendid times, while you grind, grind, year in and year out.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott - It means grind, grind, grind for six to eight hours a day at mathematics, and nothing but mathematics.
— from Mrs. Warren's Profession by Bernard Shaw - "It's this way, you see: I've had a pretty steady grind of it these last years, working up my social position.
— from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
