English Synonyms.—Bones; chatterers; cogs; crashing cheats; dining-room
furniture (or chairs); dinner-set; dominoes; front-rails; Hampstead
Heath (rhyming); head rails; ivories; park-palings (or railings);
snagglers; tushes (or tusks); tomb-stones.
French Synonyms.—Les soeurs blanches (thieves’ = the ‘white sisters’ or
ivories); les chocottes (thieves’); les cassantes (thieves’ =
grinders); les broches (popular = head-rails); les crocs (popular =
tusks); le clou de giroflé (common = a decayed, black tooth); les
branlantes (popular = the quakers: specifically, old men’s teeth); le
mobilier (thieves’ = furniture); les meules de moulin (popular =
millstones); le jeu de dominos (thieves’ = dominoes); les osanores
(thieves’); les osselets (thieves’ = bonelets); les palettes (popular
and thieves’); la batterie (= the teeth, throat, and tongue).
German Synonyms.—Krächling (= grinderkin; from krachen = to crush).
Italian Synonyms.—Merlo (= battlement); sganascio; rastrelliera (= the
rack).
1597. Hall, Satires, iv., 1. Her grinders like two chalk stones in
a mill.
1640. Humphrey Mill, Night’s Search, Sect. 39, p. 194. Her grinders
white, her mouth must show her age.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, bk. IV. Author’s Prologue. The devil of
one musty crust of a brown George the poor boys had to scour their
grinders with.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Grinder, s.v. The Cove has Rum
Grinders, the Rogue has excellent Teeth.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, x., 365. One, who at sight of supper open’d
wide His jaws before, and whetted grinders tried.
1740. Walpole, Correspondence. A set of gnashing teeth, the
grinders very entire.
1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xlv. Like a dried walnut
between the grinders of a Templar in the pit.
1817. Scott, Ivanhoe, c. 16. None who beheld thy grinders
contending with these peas.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 23. With grinders dislodg’d, and with
peepers both poach’d.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. iv., ch. i. A grinder having been
dislodged, his pipe took possession of the aperture.
1836. M. Scott, Cruise of the Midge, p. 83. Every now and then he
would clap his head sideways on the ground, so as to get the back
grinders to bear on his prey.
1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xiii. Sir Robert Peel, though
he wished it ever so much, has no power over Mr. Benjamin
Disraeli’s grinders, or any means of violently handling that
gentleman’s jaw.
1871. Chambers’ Jour., 9 Dec., p. 772. My grinders is good enough
for all the wittels I gets.
1888. Sporting Life, 28 Nov. Countered heavily on the grinders.
To take a grinder, verb. phr. (common).—To apply the left thumb to the
nose, and revolve the right hand round it, as if to work a hand-organ
or coffee-mill; to take a sight (q.v.); to work the coffee-mill (q.v.).
[A street boy’s retort on an attempt to impose on his good faith or
credulity.]
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xxxi. Here Mr. Jackson smiled once
more upon the company; and, applying his left thumb to the tip of
his nose, worked a visionary coffee-mill with his right hand,
thereby performing a very graceful piece of pantomime (then much in
vogue, but now, unhappily, almost obsolete) which was familiarly
denominated taking a grinder.
1870. Athenæum, 8 July. ‘Rev. of Comic Hist. of United States.’ He
finds himself confronted by a plumed and lightly-clad Indian, who
salutes him with what street-boys term a grinder.
Grinding-house, subs. (old).—1. The House of Correction. For synonyms,
see Cage.
1614. Terence in English. The fellow is worthy to be put into the
grinding-house.
2. (venery).—A brothel. For synonyms, see Nanny-shop. [Grinding-tool =
the penis.]
Grinding-mill, subs. (common).—The house of a tutor or Coach (q.v.)
where students are prepared for an examination.
Grind-off (or Grindo), subs. (common).—A miller. [From a character in
The Miller and his Men.]
Grindstone, subs. (common).—1. A tutor; a coach (q.v.).