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The Collaborative International Dictionary
gritstone

Grit \Grit\, n. [OE, greet, greot, sand, gravel, AS. gre['o]t grit, sant, dust; akin to OS griott, OFries. gret gravel, OHG. grioz, G. griess, Icel. grj[=o]t, and to E. groats, grout. See Groats, Grout, and cf. Grail gravel.]

  1. Sand or gravel; rough, hard particles.

  2. The coarse part of meal.

  3. pl. Grain, esp. oats or wheat, hulled and coarsely ground; in high milling, fragments of cracked wheat smaller than groats.

  4. (Geol.) A hard, coarse-grained siliceous sandstone; as, millstone grit; -- called also gritrock and gritstone. The name is also applied to a finer sharp-grained sandstone; as, grindstone grit.

  5. Structure, as adapted to grind or sharpen; as, a hone of good grit.

  6. Firmness of mind; invincible spirit; unyielding courage; fortitude.
    --C. Reade.
    --E. P. Whipple.

Wiktionary
gritstone

n. A form of sedimentary rock, similar to sandstone but coarser.

WordNet
gritstone

n. a hard coarse-grained siliceous sandstone [syn: grit, gritrock]

Wikipedia
Gritstone

Gritstone or grit is a hard, coarse-grained, siliceous sandstone. This term is especially applied to such sandstones that are quarried for building material. British gritstone was used for millstones to mill flour, to grind wood into pulp for paper and for grindstones to sharpen blades. "Grit" is often applied to sandstones composed of angular sand grains. It may commonly contain small pebbles.

" Millstone Grit" is an informal term for a succession of gritstones which are to be found in the Peak District and Pennines of northern England. These sediments were laid down in the late (upper) Paleozoic era, in the Carboniferous period, in deltaic conditions. The Millstone Grit Group is a formal stratigraphic term for this sequence of rocks.

The gritstone edges of the Peak District are an important climbing area and the rock is much relished by English climbers, among whom it has almost cult status and is often referred to as "God's own rock". The rough surface provides outstanding friction, enabling climbers to stand on or grip the subtlest of features in the rock. (See the main article on rock climbing in the Peak District.)

Usage examples of "gritstone".

On the other side, just past the bend where the gully spilled out onto the trail, there was a deep gorge with a stream at the bottom, and across it a cliff of crumbling, red-brown gritstone, its face patchy and veined with crystal of various colors.

The chamber was typical of Heb­ridean sea-caves, a simple excavation in Precambrian gritstone accomplished by wave action, having no stalactites or other pic­turesque features.

A squeak like a knife scraping across an earthenware plate told there was barely any grain left for the rough-keyed gritstone to bite on.

This was not the windswept gritstone edge above the stark and wild Yorkshire moors of her dreams.

But except for a dusting of fine black ash, almost invisible, and a few tiny pieces of gritstone clinging to the arches of her feet, nothing marred the smooth skin.