grit n.2
(US) land or property.
![]() | Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) XVI Sept. in Inge (1967) 65: I never vierlates the law of horspitality at this house, nur on my grit. | ‘A Sleep-Walking Incident’|
![]() | (con. 1820s) Fisher’s River 52: Here’s at you, sir. What bizness have you on my grit? [HDAS]. |
In phrases
1. (US, also cut grit, hit grit, hit the gravel, ...turf, wallop the flint) to leave, to get moving, to travel fast.
![]() | Harper’s Mag. Dec. 139/1: As soon as I cut grit they all started too, and let loose two big bull-dogs they had chained [DA]. | |
![]() | Cheyenne Transporter 15 Apr. 3/2: The young man had to hit the grit lively. | |
![]() | Sketches of Country Life 153: [He] hit the grit and hit it a movin. | |
![]() | True Bills 83: I never caused a Book-Maker to hit the Grit. | ‘The Fable of the Society-Trimmers’ in|
![]() | DN III:i 83: hit the grit, v. phr. To leave; to walk away. ‘I guess I’ll hit the grit, seein’ ’s I’ve got fired.’. | ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in|
![]() | Wenatchee Daily World (Wash State) 14 May 1/1: The big boxer accordingly armed himself ...] and hit the grit. | |
![]() | Winning of Barbara Worth 268: We’ll hit the grit good and hard now for we must be in the sand hills by morning . | |
![]() | Sweat (1995) 962: Dat’s a nice snake an’ anybody doan lak ’im kin jes’ hit de grit. | |
![]() | Travels of Tramp-Royal 142: Then come on, you bull-men! Hike out, you flat-feets! Wallop the flint, you horn-hoofed wanderlusters! | |
![]() | Mules and Men (1995) 69: Grab your dinner-bucket and hit the grit. Don’t keep the straw-boss waiting. | |
![]() | Runyon à la Carte 87: The best thing she can do is hit the grit out of town. | |
![]() | DAUL 98/1: Hit the turf. [...] 3. (Hobo) To take to the road; to go out on the street or road to beg. | et al.|
![]() | Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 213: Blow, hit grit, hit the trail. | |
![]() | Death of a Citizen 25: The rear end broke loose as we hit the gravel, and I almost lost the heap completely. | |
![]() | Dark Journey 150: Perhaps as many as one in three tenant families chose, in the plantation idiom, to ‘hit the grit’. |
2. (US) to die.
![]() | cited in DARE. |
3. (US tramp, also hit the gravel) to jump or be forced to jump off a moving train.
![]() | Road 138: The shack stuck his head into my box and said: ‘Hit the grit, you son of a toad! Hit the grit!’. | |
![]() | Zone Policeman 88 128: [I] often find myself [...] carried entirely out of my district [...] and have to ‘hit the grit’ in ‘hobo’ fashion and catch something back to the spot where I left off. | |
![]() | Beggars of Life 47: ‘Pay us, or hit the gravel,’ snarled the conductor. | |
![]() | Man’s Grim Justice 132: He was either killed or compelled to hit the grit (jump). | |
![]() | RR Man’s Mag. 470: Hitting the grit or gravel — Falling off or getting kicked off a car [DARE]. | |
![]() | Milk and Honey Route 207: Hitting the grit – To be forced off a fast moving train. |