grit one's teeth

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Endure a difficult or painful situation with determination

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

chịu đựng tình huống khó khăn hoặc đau đớn với quyết tâm

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: grind teeth together
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

She gritted her teeth and finished the project

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “grit one's teeth” mean?

Endure a difficult or painful situation with determination Literally: grind teeth together

Is “grit one's teeth” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.