Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (1940s+ mainly Aus.) a bicycle.

1912		Sport (Adelaide) 15 June 14/1: They Say [...] That Biscuit B’s 4s. 6d traction engine has broken it’s back axle. The make of the grid is unknown.
1922		D.H. Lawrence ‘Monkey Nuts’ England, my England (2006) 57: Oh, well! I wheel the grid, do I?
1932		Camperdown Chron. (Vic.) 2 July 8/2: The possession of a ‘grid’ or ‘mangle’, as cycles are popularly known, is the ambition of almost every youth.
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 5: Grid: Cycle.
1943		Coast to Coast (1942) 71: ‘I’ll walk and wheel the bike, and if my dad’s home he can drive out in the car to meet me.’ ‘Gosh, no!’ you said. ‘Here, you go on, on my grid, an’ I’ll do the walking.’ .
1945		Albany Advertiser (Aus.) 15 Jan. 4/2: A couple of young bloods double-dinking on a ramshackle grid.
1962		K. Waterhouse There is a Happy Land (1964) 21: Can we borrow your grid, Garno?
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxv 6/1: grid: A bicycle.
1993		Aus. Word Map 🌐 grid. bicycle: I rode my grid today.
2001		OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 grid n. a bicycle.

2. a car.

1958		Willans & Searle Complete Molesworth (1985) 339: Roads are v. dangerous places, especially when you see how GRIMES (headmaster) and SIGISMUND [...] drive their cranky old grids.
2007		UGK ‘Like That’ 🎵 And fuck how she feel like she bought the whole grid.

3. a piano.

1958

Willans & Searle Complete Molesworth (1985) 183: It is a cranky old grid made by an old German.