grate
1
6.4
- noun
- /ɡreɪt/
- He winced at the grate of the chalk on the blackboard as the teacher wrote a problem.
Examples
-
When the metal chair scraped against the floor, it produced an irritating grate that echoed through the hall.
-
She heard his key grate in the lock.
Fiction book (1999) -
I want every heating grate opened and inspected.
Fiction book (1992) -
Taslima stops at a sewer grate in the street.
Fiction book (1996) -
It was charming, welcoming, with a fire burning brightly in the grate and the silk-shaded lamps turned on.
Fiction book (1996) -
The distiller himself was crouched over the fire, poking errant bits of charcoal back into the grate.
Fiction book (1992) -
The room where he had been invited to dinner by Captain Geoffrey Stewart was Dickensian, with a congenial coal fire in the grate under a walnut mantelpiece.
Fiction book (1996) -
The sudden noise made a harsh grate that startled everyone in the room.
Synonyms
19
2.1
A harsh scraping sound when two hard or rough things rub together
15
2.3
A harsh sound made when one thing rubs another
9
1.2
A harsh scraping sound, for example from branches or a pen
5
3.2
A harsh, rough sound made when one thing rubs another
1
4.2
A harsh scraping sound made when hard surfaces rub together
Antonyms
How Harsh
Surface Forms
Etymology
The sound sense of grate comes from an old verb meaning 'to scrape', like when two hard things rub and make a rough noise. So a grate is a harsh, scraping sound.