grate

Everyday

1. To rub food such as cheese or carrot against a tool with sharp holes so it falls off in thin strips or tiny bits. tree →
2. A metal frame that holds the coal or wood in a fireplace. tree →
3. A metal frame with gaps that covers a drain or hole in the ground. tree →
4. To make a harsh, unpleasant scraping sound, or to annoy someone («it grates on me»). tree →

In the lessons

In cooking lessons and recipes: «grate the cheese», «finely grated», «grated carrot». In safety: keep fingers away from the sharp side, and do not drop things through a drain grate. In stories, a voice or sound that «grates» is harsh and unpleasant, and something that «grates on your nerves» annoys you again and again.

Examples

• Can you grate some cheese for the pizza? tree →
• Mum grated a carrot into the salad. tree →
• Be careful not to grate your knuckles. tree →
• The fire was burning in the grate. tree →
• My key fell through the drain grate in the street. tree →
• The old gate grated on its rusty hinges. tree →
• His loud chewing really grates on me. tree →
• Add two cups of grated cheese to the bowl. tree →
• There is no fire in the grate, and hunger has made him faint.” tree →

Note

Homophone: «great» (very good, very big) sounds the same as «grate». «Grated» = rubbed into bits; «grateful» = thankful (a different word that only looks related). Past «grated». A «grate» in a fireplace is countable: «a grate, two grates».

In Jewish tradition

It was a bronze grating of the altar in the Tabernacle, with four rings for the carrying poles.

Interpretation. Some commentators say the grating let the fire's air and ashes pass through. Others say it held the wood and the offerings.

Examples

• the brazen altar, and its grating of brass, its staves, and all its vessels, the laver and its base; (Torah EXO.39.39, JPS 1917) tree →
• the altar of burnt-offering, with its grating of brass, its staves, and all its vessels, the laver and its base; (Torah EXO.35.16, JPS 1917) tree →
• And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grating of brass, to be holders for the staves. (Torah EXO.38.5, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

Homophone: «great» (very good, very big) sounds the same as «grate». «Grated» = rubbed into bits; «grateful» = thankful (a different word that only looks related). Past «grated». A «grate» in a fireplace is countable: «a grate, two grates».