grid

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A system for delivery of electricity, consisting of various substations, transformers and generators, connected by wire.

   You can't turn off the building from here; you have to shut down the whole grid.

2. 2
   noun

   The pattern of starting positions of the drivers for a race.

   McLaren's Lewis Hamilton fought up from the back of the grid to eighth, with team-mate Jenson Button taking ninth.

3. 3
   noun

   A grating of parallel bars; a gridiron.

   They camped that night at Dingo Creek, the fire Jim quickly made, Put the Billy on the cross-piece, pitched the tent, Brought a steak from 'neath the saddle-flap, and on the "grid" 'twas laid, A piece of rusty fencing wire, well bent.

4. 4
   noun

   An openwork ceiling above the stage or studio, used for affixing lights etc.

   Everything on the grid – all the backdrops and curtains, anything that has to move up and down from the fly-tower – has to be counterweighted.

5. 5
   verb

   To enter in a grid.

   On the SAT, to answer a grid-in question, you grid in your answer by filling out the ovals.

6. 6
   noun

   Acronym of gay-related immunodeficiency (“AIDS”) .

   The cause of the disorder is unknown. Researchers call it A.I.D., for acquired immunodeficiency disease, or GRID, for gay-related immunodeficiency. It has been reported in 20 states and seven countries.

7. 7
   noun

   a cooking utensil of parallel metal bars

8. 8
   noun

   an electrode placed between the cathode and anode of a vacuum tube to control the flow of electrons through the tube

Etymology

Back-formation or clipping of griddle or gridiron.