Definition of "grit"

grit¹

/ɡɹɪt/

noun
uncountable
1. A collection of hard small materials, such as dirt, ground stone, debris from sandblasting or other such grinding, or swarf from metalworking.
  1. Sand or a sand–salt mixture spread on wet and, especially, icy roads and footpaths to improve traction.
2. Inedible particles in food.
3. A measure of the relative coarseness of an abrasive material such as sandpaper, the smaller the number the coarser the abrasive.
4. (geology) A hard, coarse-grained siliceous sandstone; gritstone. Also, a finer sharp-grained sandstone, e.g., grindstone grit.
5. Strength of mind; great courage or fearlessness; fortitude.
  Quotations
  They came to a rising ground , not sharp , but long ; and here youth and grit and sober living told more than ever.
  1861, Charles Reade, The Cloister and the Hearth; or, Maid, Wife, and Widow. A Matter-of-Fact Romance., New York, N.Y.: Rudd & Carleton; London: Trübner & Co.
  If you are overcome by a man of grit, he insolently makes you conscious of your own weakness
  1880, Edwin Percy Whipple, Success and Its Conditions
  Although working under very unpleasant conditions they never grumbled, and to the end showed continuous grit; and in addition to this several examples of sheer heroism were displayed.
  1941 April, “Notes and News: Railwaymen and Snow”, in Railway Magazine, page 178
  But what their admirers call grit and critics deem shamelessness can overshadow another essential element of the Clinton school: a willingness to put on the hair shirt of humility to regain power.
  2015 April 15, Jonathan Martin, “For a Clinton, it’s not hard to be humble in an effort to regain power”, in The New York Times‎, archived from the original on 6 September 2015
verb
third-person singular simple present grits, present participle gritting, simple past and past participle gritted or (nonstandard) grit
1. Apparently only in grit one's teeth: to clench, particularly in reaction to pain or anger.
2. To cover with grit.
3. (obsolete, intransitive) To give forth a grating sound, like sand under the feet; to grate; to grind.
  Quotations
  The sanded |floor that grits beneath the tread.
  1767, Oliver Goldsmith, The Hermit

grit²

/ɡɹɪt/

noun
plural grits
1. (usually in the plural) Husked but unground oats.
2. (usually in the plural) Coarsely ground corn or hominy used as porridge.