grind (redirected from come to a grinding halt)

daily grind

[someone's] everyday work routine. I'm getting very tired of the daily grind. When my vacation was over, I had to go back to the daily grind.

See also: daily

grind someone down

Fig. to wear someone down by constant requests; to wear someone down by constant nagging. If you think you can grind me down by bothering me all the time, you are wrong. The constant nagging ground down the employees at last.

grind something away

to remove something by grinding. Grind the bumps away and make the wall smooth. Please grind away the bumps.

See also: away

grind something down

to make something smooth or even by grinding. Grind this down to make it smooth. Please grind down this rough spot.

grind something into something 

1. to pulverize something into powder, grit, particles, etc. The machine ground the rocks into gravel. The mill ground the grain into flour.

2. and grind something in to crush or rub something into something. People's feet ground the cigarette ashes into the carpet. Their feet ground in the ashes.

grind something out .

1. Lit. to produce something by grinding. Working hard, he ground the powder out, acup at a time. He ground out the powder, a cup at a time.

2. Fig. to produce something in a mechanical or perfunctory manner. The factory just keeps grinding these toys out, day after day. The machine grinds out the same part by the hundreds all day long.

See also: out

grind something to something

to keep grinding something until it is something. I ground the fennel seeds to a powder and threw them in the simmering sauce. The wheels of the cars, trucks, and buses had ground the football to a broken mass.

grind something together

to rub things together. Stop grinding your teeth together. The stones ground together as we drove over them.

See also: together

grind something up

to pulverize or crush something by crushing, rubbing, or abrasion. Please grind the fennel seeds up. Grind up the fennel seeds and sprinkle them on the top.

See also: up

grind away (at something)

to crush something into particles continually. The machine ground away at the rocks, making tons of gravel. It ground away, making a terrible noise in the process.

See also: away

grind on

Fig. [for something] to drag on endlessly. The hours ground on without anything happening. I was so tired of waiting. The lecture ground on, minute after minute.

grind to a halt

Fig. to slow down and stop. Every day about noon, traffic in town grinds to a halt. The bus ground to a halt at the corner and someone got off.

See also: halt

have an ax(e) to grind

Fig. to have something to complain about. Tom, I need to talk to you. I have an ax to grind. Bill and Bob went into the other room to argue. They had an axe to grind.

See also: have

mill cannot grind with water that is past

Prov. Do not waste the opportunities you now have.; Do not waste time wishing for what you had in the past. If you want to go abroad, do it now, while you're young and have the money. The mill cannot grind with water that is past.

See also: cannot, mill, past, water

mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small

Prov. It may take a long time, but evil will always be punished. Jill: It really doesn't seem right that Fred can be so horrible and dishonest, but he always gets everything he wants. Jane: Be patient. The mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.

See also: god, small, yet

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grind to a halt/standstill

if an organization, system, or process grinds to a halt, it stops working, usually because of a problem If the computer network crashed, the whole office would grind to a halt.

See also: halt

have an axe to grind

to have a strong opinion about something, which you are often trying to persuade other people is correct As a novelist, he has no political axe to grind.

See also: axe, have

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grind to a halt

to slowly come to a stop Traffic on the interstate almost ground to a halt today because it was so foggy. The strike has caused production of new cars to grind to a halt.

See also: halt

have an ax to grind also have an axe to grind

1. to have a selfish reason for saying or doing something The best reporting is done by people who don't have an ax to grind. After you get the same complaints from a number of people, you begin to think it may not be just people who have personal axes to grind.

2. to have a strong opinion about something that influences your actions I don't have an ax to grind about the fact that Christmas has become commercialized.

See also: have