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countable and uncountable, plural grists
Grain that is to be ground in a mill. quotations examples
That it will, however, cause the subscribers to wish, in their minds, for many oaths to fly about, which is a heinous crime, and to lay stratagems to try the patience of men of all sorts; to put them upon the swearing strain, in order to bring grist to their own mill, which is a crime still more enormous; and that therefore, for fear of these evil consequences, the passing of such an act is not consistent with the really extraordinary and tender conscience of a true modern politician.
1720, Thomas Hope [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “An Essay on English Bubbles”, in The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, volume 8
Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.
2013 July–August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4
(obsolete) A group of bees.
(colloquial, obsolete) Supply; provision. quotations
Matter, as wise logicians say, / Cannot without a form subsist; / And form, say I, as well as they, / Must fail if matter brings no grist.
1719, Jonathan Swift, “The Progress of Beauty”, in The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., volume 1
(ropemaking) A given size of rope, common grist being a rope three inches in circumference, with twenty yarns in each of the three strands. examples
(figurative) Ellipsis of grist for the mill. quotations examples
True stories are embellished, the casts of fictional dramas stuffed with unlikely non-actors. All is grist to what [Werner] Herzog calls “ecstatic truth”.
2023 November 11, Danny Leigh, “Living on the edge”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 10
third-person singular simple present grists, present participle gristing, simple past and past participle gristed
(transitive) To grind in a mill. quotations examples
[…] and another mill is erecting on the same stream near Sparrow Lake, to which a run of stones for gristing will be added.
1861, Sessional Papers of the Parliament of the Province of Canada
[…] it cleaned out two hundred and ten bushels called screenings; the balance was sold, gristed and used for seed.
1892, Annual report of the Department of Indian Affairs, page 70