ground

English Online Dictionary. What means ground‎? What does ground mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ɡɹaʊnd/
• Rhymes: -aʊnd

Etymology 1

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.

Alternative forms

• GND (contraction used in electronics)

Noun

ground (countable and uncountable, plural grounds)

2. The surface of the Earth, as opposed to the sky or water or underground.
3. (uncountable) Terrain.
4. Soil, earth.

5. (countable) The bottom of a body of water.
6. Basis, foundation, groundwork, legwork.
7. (chiefly in the plural) Reason, (epistemic) justification, cause.

8. Background, context, framework, surroundings.
9. (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".
10. (figurative, by extension) Advantage given or gained in any contest; e.g. in football, chess, debate or academic discourse.
11. (in combination) A place suited to a specified activity.
12. The plain surface upon which the figures of an artistic composition are set.
13. (sculpture) A flat surface upon which figures are raised in relief.
14. (point lace) The net of small meshes upon which the embroidered pattern is applied.

    Brussels ground

15. (etching) A gummy substance spread over the surface of a metal to be etched, to prevent the acid from eating except where an opening is made by the needle.
16. (architecture, chiefly in the plural) One of the pieces of wood, flush with the plastering, to which mouldings etc. are attached.

17. (countable, UK) A soccer stadium.

19. (electricity) An electrical conductor connected to the earth, or a large conductor whose electrical potential is taken as zero (such as a steel chassis).
20. (electricity, Philippines) Electric shock.
21. (countable, cricket) The area of grass on which a match is played (a cricket field); the entire arena in which it is played; the part of the field behind a batsman's popping crease where he can not be run out (hence to make one's ground).
22. (music) A composition in which the bass, consisting of a few bars of independent notes, is continually repeated to a varying melody.
23. (music) The tune on which descants are raised; the plain song.
24. The pit of a theatre.
25. (India, obsolete) Synonym of munny (“land measure”)

Synonyms

• (electricity) earth (British)

Hyponyms

Derived terms

• English terms starting with “ground”

Translations

See also

• floor
• terra firma

Verb

ground (third-person singular simple present grounds, present participle grounding, simple past and past participle grounded)

1. (US) To connect (an electrical conductor or device) to a ground.

   Synonym: earth
2. (Philippines) To electrocute.
3. (transitive) To punish, especially a child or teenager, by forcing them to stay at home and/or give up certain privileges.

   Synonym: gate

4. (transitive) To forbid (an aircraft or pilot) to fly.

5. To give a basic education in a particular subject; to instruct in elements or first principles.

6. (cricket) To place a bat or part of the body on the ground to avoid being run out.
7. (baseball) To hit a ground ball. Compare fly (verb (regular)) and line (verb).
8. To place something on the ground.
9. (intransitive) To run aground; to strike the bottom and remain fixed.

10. To found; to fix or set, as on a foundation, reason, or principle; to furnish a ground for; to fix firmly.
11. (fine arts) To cover with a ground, as a copper plate for etching, or as paper or other materials with a uniform tint as a preparation for ornament.
12. To improve or focus the mental or emotional state of.

13. (machine learning) To complement a machine learning model with relevant information it was not trained on.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Inflected form of grind. See also milled.

Verb

ground

1. simple past and past participle of grind

Adjective

ground (not comparable)

1. Crushed, or reduced to small particles.

   Synonym: milled
2. Processed by grinding.
   • 2018, H Glimpel, HJ Lauffer, A Bremstahler, Finishing Tool, In Particular End Milling Cutter, US Patent App. 15/764,739

     An advantage of such a finishing tool is that, after the machining, the workpiece has high surface quality. The surface which is produced appears finely ground to polished by means of this procedure.

Derived terms

• ground beef
• ground glass
• ground meat
• ground pepper
• misground
• preground
• stoneground
• unground

Translations

Descendants

• → Tok Pisin: graun

References

• “ground”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• dog run

Middle English

Alternative forms

• grund, grounde

Etymology

From Old English grund, from Proto-West Germanic *grundu, from Proto-Germanic *grunduz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡruːnd/

Noun

ground

1. ground
2. Earth

Declension

Descendants

• English: ground
  • → Fiji Hindi: garaund
  • → Maltese: grawnd
• Geordie English: grund, groond
• Scots: grund, groond, greund
• Yola: greoune, greoun, greound

References

• “grǒund, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.