English
ground
Pronunciation
  • (RP, America) IPA: /ɡɹaʊnd/
Etymology 1

From Middle English grounde, from Old English grund, from Proto-Germanic *grunduz.

Noun

ground

  1. The surface of the Earth, as opposed to the sky or water or underground.
    Look, I found a ten dollar bill on the ground!
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:
      If the afternoon was fine they strolled together in the park, very slowly, and with pauses to draw breath wherever the ground sloped upward. The slightest effort made the patient cough.
    • 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:
      Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […] Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.
  2. (uncountable) Terrain.
  3. Soil, earth.
    The worm crawls through the ground.
  4. (countable) The bottom of a body of water.
  5. Basis, foundation, groundwork, legwork.
    • c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC ↗, page 62, lines 11–14:
      Wyth cry unreverent,
      Before the sacrament,
      Wythin the holy church bowndis,
      That of our fayth the grownd is.
  6. (chiefly, in the plural) reason, (epistemic) justification, cause.
    You will need to show good grounds for your action.
    He could not come on grounds of health, or on health grounds.
  7. Background, context, framework, surroundings.
  8. (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".
  9. (figurative, by extension) Advantage given or gained in any contest; e.g. in football, chess, debate or academic discourse.
  10. (in combination) A place suited to a specified activity.
    a forest traditionally used as a hunting-ground
  11. The plain surface upon which the figures of an artistic composition are set.
    crimson flowers on a white ground
    • 1819, Abraham Rees, The Cyclopædia:
      […] to pad a piece in diluted acetate of alumine to obtain a pale lemon ground […]
  12. (sculpture) A flat surface upon which figures are raised in relief.
  13. (point lace) The net of small meshes upon which the embroidered pattern is applied.
    Brussels ground
  14. (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.
  15. (architecture, mostly, in the plural) One of the pieces of wood, flush with the plastering, to which mouldings etc. are attached.
    Grounds are usually put up first and the plastering floated flush with them.
  16. (countable) A soccer stadium.
    Manchester United's ground is known as Old Trafford.
  17. (electricity, Canadian and US) An electrical conductor connected to the earth, or a large conductor whose electrical potential is taken as zero (such as a steel chassis).
  18. (electricity, Philippines) Electric shock.
  19. (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).
  20. (music) A composition in which the bass, consisting of a few bars of independent notes, is continually repeated to a varying melody.
  21. (music) The tune on which descants are raised; the plain song.
    • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene vii]:
      Buck[ingham]   The Mayor is here at hand; pretend ſome fear, // Be not you ſpoke with, but by mighty ſuit; // And look you get a prayer-book in your hand, // And ſtand between two churchmen, good my lord, // For on that ground I’ll build a holy deſcant: // And be not eaſily won to our requeſts: // Play the maid’s part, ſtill anſwer nay, and take it.
  22. The pit of a theatre.
    • 1614 November 10 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Beniamin Iohnson [i.e., Ben Jonson], Bartholmew Fayre: A Comedie, […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Robert Allot, […], published 1631, →OCLC ↗, (please specify the page):
      the understanding gentlemen o' the ground here ask'd my judgment
  23. (India, obsolete) Synonym of munny
    • 1885, Manual of the Administration of the Madras Presidency, page 515:
      It is sub-divided into annas (or 16ths), of 3,600 square feet each; or when the land is for building purposes, into grounds (munnies) of 1/24 of a cawny each, as in the town of Madras.
Synonyms
  • (electricity) earth (British)
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

ground (grounds, present participle grounding; simple past and past participle grounded)

  1. (US) To connect (an electrical conductor or device) to a ground.
    Synonyms: 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.
    Synonyms: gate
    If you don't clean your room, I'll have no choice but to ground you.
    Eric, you are grounded until further notice for lying to us about where you were last night!
    My kids are currently grounded from television.
  4. (transitive) To forbid (an aircraft or pilot) to fly.
    Because of the bad weather, all flights were grounded.
  5. To give a basic education in a particular subject; to instruct in elements or first principles.
    Jim was grounded in maths.
  6. (baseball) To hit a ground ball. Compare fly (verb (regular)) and line (verb).
  7. To place something on the ground.
  8. (intransitive) To run aground; to strike the bottom and remain fixed.
    The ship grounded on the bar.
  9. To found; to fix or set, as on a foundation, reason, or principle; to furnish a ground for; to fix firmly.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Ephesians 3:17 ↗:
      being rooted and grounded in love
    • 1859–1860, William Hamilton, edited by H[enry] L[ongueville] Mansel and John Veitch, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC ↗:
      So far from warranting any inference to the existence of a God, would, on the contrary, ground even an argument to his negation.
  10. (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.
  11. To improve or focus the mental or emotional state of.
    I ground myself with meditation.
  12. (ML) To complement a machine learning model with relevant information it was not trained on.
Translations Translations Etymology 2

Inflected form of grind. See also milled.

Verb
  1. Simple past tense and past participle of grind
    I ground the coffee up nicely.
Adjective

ground (not comparable)

  1. Crushed, or reduced to small particles.
    Synonyms: milled
    ground mustard seed
  2. Processed by grinding.
    lenses of ground glass
    • 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.
Translations

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