grill

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɡɹɪl/^[1]

Etymology

The verb is borrowed from French griller (1668), from the noun gril (“gridiron”);^[2][3][4][5] the noun, a gridiron, is from French gril (1685),^[2][3] from Old French greil, earlier grail, an alteration of graille (“grating, railing”),^[2][6] from Latin crāticula (“small gridiron”), a diminutive of crātis (“wickerwork, hurdle”),^[2][6][7] perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *kert- (“to turn, entwine”).^[6] Hoad describes gril as a masculine form built on the feminine grille.^[5] In many uses English grill is simply a shortening of grille, or comes from the English verb.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To broil on a gridiron: the verb from 1668, the noun "gridiron" from 1685, in a translation of Montaigne.^[2][4][8]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) gives only the verb, to broil on a grate or gridiron.^[9] The noun for food cooked on a grill is from the 18th century (1766 in the Historical Thesaurus),^[5][8] and grill-room, a room where meat is grilled to order, from 1869; it became an informal restaurant, and grill its short form, by 1910.^[6] The figurative sense "to torment with heat" is from 1842,^[6] and "to question closely" from 1894.^[6][10] On British cookers a grill is now a device that heats food from above,^[10] and in American English the usual verb is broil.^[11] In US black slang grill has meant the stomach (1947) and later the face or mouth.^[12]

Timeline

• 1668 – the verb, to broil on a gridiron.^[2][3]
• 1685 – the noun, a gridiron.^[2][3]
• 1766 – grilled food.^[8]
• 1842 – figurative, to torment as if by heat.^[6]
• 1869 – grill-room.^[6]
• 1894 – to question intensely.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A framework of metal bars on which food is cooked over a fire; a gridiron.
2. (British) A part of a cooker that sends heat downward onto food.
3. A dish of grilled food, as in a mixed grill.
4. An informal restaurant; a grillroom.

Verb

1. To cook on a grill or under direct heat; to broil.
2. (informal) To question someone closely and at length.

Word family

• griller
• grillery
• grillwork
• mixed grill

Related words

• grille
• griddle
• crate
• gridiron

Usage notes

Middle English had an unrelated native grill, fierce or cruel (as an adjective) and to annoy or provoke (as a verb), from about 1175 to the 16th century;^[4] the OED links it doubtfully with German grell and Groll.^[4] In Suffolk and Devon dialect grill meant to snarl, and in Scots to shiver.^[13]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)