What does "grindstone" mean?

An abrasive wheel for sharpening, polishing, or grinding.

What is a synonym for "grindstone"?

Common synonyms include: buffer, emery, knife grinder, lathe, millstone, millstone.

Pronounced //ˈɡɹaɪn(d)ˌstəʊn//.

//ˈɡɹaɪn(d)ˌstəʊn// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
An abrasive wheel for sharpening, polishing, or grinding.
2
a revolving stone shaped like a disk; used to grind or sharpen or polish edge tools wordnet
3
Synonym of starry flounder.

"Now I'd better put my nose to the grindstone, I have a lot of work today."

From Middle English grind-ston, grindistan, (also as grindel-ston), equivalent to grind + stone. Cognate with Scots grindstane.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.