(n.) A flat, circular stone, revolving on an axle, for grinding or sharpening tools, or shaping or smoothing objects.
Example Sentences:
(1) The authors report two new cases of craniofacial lesions due to the explosion of grindstone wheels and consider, after a short technological introduction, the specific features of these lesions diagnostically and therapeutically.
(2) Many of the grindstones used in Nigerian homes are quarried from sandstone in a small group of villages near Kano in the extreme north of the country.
(3) Success is something you work hard at, you put your nose to the grindstone and you do everything you can.
(4) A nose that needs to be put back on the money-making grindstone sharpish.
(5) And off he jogged, up back towards the relentless Bilderberg grindstone.
(6) Perhaps provocative references in Britannia Unchained to people preferring "a lie in to hard work" will look less inflammatory in context, or at least in season (the book's due out in September, traditional month of noses back to grindstones and party conference tub-thumping).
Swarf
Definition:
(v. i.) To grow languid; to faint.
(n.) The grit worn away from grindstones in grinding cutlery wet.