ground
/ɡɹaʊnd/ noun, verb, adjective
Also a form of grind
Forms grounds grounding grounded GND
- noun The surface of the Earth, as opposed to the sky or water or underground. “Look, I found a ten dollar bill on the ground!”
- noun (uncountable) Terrain.
- noun Soil, earth. “The worm crawls through the ground.”
- noun (countable) The bottom of a body of water.
- noun Basis, foundation, groundwork, legwork.
- noun (chiefly in the plural) Reason, (epistemic) justification, cause. “You will need to show good grounds for your action.”
- noun Background, context, framework, surroundings.
- noun (historical) The area on which a battle is fought, particularly as referring to the area occupied by one side or the other. Often, according to the eventualities, "to give ground" or "to gain ground".
- verb (US, transitive) To connect (an electrical conductor or device) to a ground.
- verb (Philippines, transitive) To electrocute.
- verb (transitive) To punish, especially a child or teenager, by forcing them to stay at home and/or give up certain privileges. “If you don't clean your room, I'll have no choice but to ground you.”
- verb (transitive) To forbid (an aircraft or pilot) to fly. “Because of the bad weather, all flights were grounded.”
- verb (transitive) To give a basic education in a particular subject; to instruct in elements or first principles. “Jim was grounded in maths.”
- verb (cricket) To place a bat or part of the body on the ground to avoid being run out.
- verb (baseball) To hit a ground ball. Compare fly (verb (regular)) and line (verb).
- verb (transitive) To place something on the ground.
- adjective Crushed, or reduced to small particles. “ground mustard seed”
- adjective Processed by grinding. “lenses of ground glass”
Synonyms
munny earth gate milled land dry land solid ground terra firma reason footing basis background soil flat coat primer priming primer coat priming coat undercoat anchor strand run aground prime establish base found
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English ground, from Old English grund, from Proto-West Germanic *grundu, from Proto-Germanic *grunduz. Cognate with West Frisian grûn, Dutch grond and German Grund.
(to punish): Compare (to bring) down to earth, to come down to earth.
Inflected form of grind. See also milled.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The surface of the earth; the outer crust of the globe, or some indefinite portion of it. There was not a man to till the ground. Gen. ii. 5.
- noun A floor or pavement supposed to rest upon the earth.
- verb To lay, set, or run, on the ground.
- verb To found; to fix or set, as on a foundation, reason, or principle; to furnish a ground for; to fix firmly.
Etymology [OE. ground, grund, AS. grund; akin to D. grond, OS., G., Sw., & Dan. grund, Icel. grunnr bottom, Goth. grundus (in composition); perh. orig. meaning, dust, gravel, and if so perh. akin to E. grind.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “ground”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details