grate

Plural: grates

Noun

• a frame of iron bars to hold a fire
• a harsh rasping sound made by scraping something
• a barrier that has parallel or crossed bars blocking a passage but admitting air
• A horizontal metal grill through which liquid, ash, or small objects can fall, while larger objects cannot.
• A frame or bed, or kind of basket, of iron bars, for holding fuel while burning.
• A grapper, a metal ring on a lance behind the grip.

Verb

Verb Forms: grated, grating, grates

• To reduce food to small pieces by rubbing against a rough surface.
• furnish with a grate
  • "a grated fireplace"
• gnaw into; make resentful or angry
• reduce to small shreds or pulverize by rubbing against a rough or sharp perforated surface
  • "grate carrots and onions"
  • "grate nutmeg"
• make a grating or grinding sound by rubbing together
  • "grate one's teeth in anger"
• scratch repeatedly
• To furnish with grates; to protect with a grating or crossbars.
• To shred (things, usually foodstuffs), by rubbing across a grater.
• To make an unpleasant rasping sound, often as the result of rubbing against something.
• To get on one's nerves; to irritate, annoy.
• To annoy.

Adj

• Serving to gratify; agreeable.
• Obsolete spelling of great.

Examples

• He tried to grate out a win from his difficult rack by playing GRATE.
• I need to grate the cheese before the potato is cooked.
• Listening to his teeth grate all day long drives me mad.
• She’s nice enough, but she can begin to grate if there is no-one else to talk to.
• The chalk grated against the board.
• The grate stopped the sheep from escaping from their field.
• to grate a window

Synonyms

eat into, fret, grating, grind, rankle, scrape, grill

Anagrams of grate