Other forms: grinders
A grinder is a machine that turns something hard into powder by crushing it between two surfaces. The one most people own grinds coffee beans; the one in a workshop grinds metal, throwing a fan of sparks as it goes.
The word covers both the domestic and the industrial, and the context does all the work of telling them apart — a coffee grinder sits on a kitchen counter, an angle grinder is held in two hands and needs goggles. There is also a pepper grinder, which is the thing on a restaurant table, and a set of grinders in your mouth, which is what dentists call the back teeth. Nothing about the word signals which is meant, so the noun in front of it is not optional.
1noungrinderA machine or device for crushing something into small pieces or powder.
“Put the beans in the grinder and press the lid down.”
Patterna coffee / pepper / spice grinder · put sth through the grinder · grind · grinding
synonyms: mill
2nounpowerA power tool with a spinning disc, used for cutting or smoothing metal and stone.
“He cut through the padlock with an angle grinder.”
3nounbroadOne of the broad back teeth used for chewing.
“The dentist said one of her grinders would have to come out.”
grinder is a machine.
GRINDer → it GRINDs the beans
It is grind + er: turn the handle and the coffee beans come out as fine brown powder.
hooks ontogrind
Old English grindere was simply one who grinds — the -er that turns a verb into the thing or person doing it, exactly as in baker and cutter. The machine took the name of the person once machines started doing the work.
Old English
grindere — one or that which grinds; grinder
Middle English
grinder
English, today
grinder
From Middle English grinder, grindere, from Old English grindere (“one or that which grinds; grinder”), equivalent to grind + er.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA