Wiktionary

grate

See also: Grate, gråte, and Gräte

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English grate, from a Medieval Latin grāta, from a Latin word for a hurdle; or Italian grata, from Latin cratis.

Noun

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grate (plural grates)

  1. A horizontal metal grill through which liquid, ash, or small objects can fall, while larger objects cannot.
    The grate stopped the sheep from escaping from their field.
  2. A frame or bed, or kind of basket, of iron bars, for holding fuel while burning.
  3. (historical) A grapper, a metal ring on a lance behind the grip.
    • 1969, Herbert Walter Macklin, Monumental Brasses:
      Lances (only shown at Stoke D'Abernon) were commonly made of ash, about 13 feet long. A ring of metal (grate or grapper) was fastened to the shaft and during a fight […]
    • 1980, The Encyclopedia Americana, volume 16, page 683:
      […] and a heavy metal ring, called the grate or graper, fastened to the shaft below the grip. The grate rested against the knight's breastplate and relieved the hand and arm of the full shock of contact. The metallic head (or socket) of the war lance was usually leaf shaped, while that of the tilting lance, at least from […]
Synonyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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grate (third-person singular simple present grates, present participle grating, simple past and past participle grated)

  1. (transitive) To furnish with grates; to protect with a grating or crossbars.
    to grate a window

Etymology 2

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From Middle English graten, from Old French grater (“to scrape”) ( > French gratter), from Frankish *krattōn, from Proto-Germanic *krattōną. Cognate with Old High German krazzon[1] ( > German kratzen (“to scrawl”) > Danish kradse), Icelandic krassa (“to scrawl”) [2] and Danish kratte.

Verb

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grate (third-person singular simple present grates, present participle grating, simple past and past participle grated)

  1. (transitive, cooking) To shred (things, usually foodstuffs), by rubbing across a grater.
    I need to grate the cheese before the potato is cooked.
  2. (intransitive) To make an unpleasant rasping sound, often as the result of rubbing against something.
    • 1856, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part 3 Chapter X, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
      The gate suddenly grated. It was Lestiboudois; he came to fetch his spade, that he had forgotten. He recognised Justin climbing over the wall, and at last knew who was the culprit who stole his potatoes.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. […] It was nearly eleven o'clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers' barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one's eyes ache, the men's voices grated harshly, and the girls' faces saddened one.
    Listening to his teeth grate all day long drives me mad.
    The chalk grated against the board.
  3. (by extension, intransitive) To get on one's nerves; to irritate, annoy.
    She’s nice enough, but she can begin to grate if there is no-one else to talk to.
  4. (by extension, transitive) To annoy.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 3

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From Latin grātus (“agreeable”).

Adjective

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grate (comparative more grate, superlative most grate)

  1. (obsolete) Serving to gratify; agreeable.
    • 1677, Sir Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels into Africa and Asia the Great:
      Coho or Coffee […] however ingrate or insapory it seems at first, it becomes grate and delicious enough by custom.
Derived terms
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Etymology 4

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Adjective

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grate (comparative more grate, superlative most grate)

  1. Obsolete spelling of great.
    • c. 1815, Mary Woody, A true account of Nayomy Wise
      He promisd her a grate reward

References

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  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “glut”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
  2. ^ Etymology of kradse in ODS

Anagrams

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Italian

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈɡra.te/
  • Rhymes: -ate
  • Hyphenation: grà‧te

Adjective

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grate f

  1. feminine plural of grato

Anagrams

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Latin

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Etymology

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From grātus (“agreeable”).

Pronunciation

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Adverb

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grātē (comparative grātius, superlative grātissimē)

  1. gladly, willingly
  2. gratefully, thankfully
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References

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  • “grate”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “grate”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

Spanish

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Verb

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grate

  1. inflection of gratar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Yola

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Etymology

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From Middle English grote.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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grate

  1. groat (old coin)

References

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  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 43
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