Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A framework of crisscrossed or parallel bars; a grating or mesh.
  • noun A cooking surface of parallel metal bars; a gridiron.
  • noun Something resembling a framework of crisscrossed parallel bars, as in rigidity or organization.
  • noun A pattern of regularly spaced horizontal and vertical lines forming squares on a map, a chart, an aerial photograph, or an optical device, used as a reference for locating points.
  • noun An interconnected system for the distribution of electricity or electromagnetic signals over a wide area, especially a network of high-tension cables and power stations.
  • noun A corrugated or perforated conducting plate in a storage battery.
  • noun Football The gridiron.
  • noun Sports The starting positions of cars on a racecourse.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A grating or openwork cover for a
  • noun A heavy framing of timbers used to support a ship in a dock.
  • noun In electricity, a zinc element in a primary battery, shaped like a grating or gridiron; the lead plate of a secondary or storage battery, consisting of a framework of bars crossing one another at right angles, into the openings of which the active matter of the plate is forced; also, a grating of ebonite used to prevent contact between battery-plates.
  • noun A name applied to a particular arrangement of members in which a number of narrow, parallel members lying in one plane are fastened at their ends to two heavier parallel members perpendicular to the others.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A grating of thin parallel bars, similar to a gridiron.
  • noun (Elec.) A plate or sheet of lead with perforations, or other irregularities of surface, by which the active material of a secondary battery or accumulator is supported.
  • noun (Electronics) a mesh or coil of fine wire in an electron tube, connected to the circuit so as to regulate the current passing through the tube.
  • noun any network of crossing horizontal and vertical lines; -- they are used, for example, as reference coordinates to locate objects or places on a map.
  • noun anything resembling a grid{4}, as the Manhattan street grid. See also gridlock.
  • noun a network of connected conductors for distributing electrical power, especially one using high-tension lines for wide geographic distribution of power.
  • noun (Football) the gridiron.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A rectangular array of squares or rectangles of equal size, such as in a crossword puzzle.
  • noun A system for delivery of electricity, consisting of various substations, transformers and generators, connected by wire.
  • noun computing A system or structure of distributed computers working mostly on a peer-to-peer basis, such structures being known as a computational grid or simply grid computing, and used mainly to solve single and complex scientific or technical problems or to process data at high speeds (as in clusters).
  • noun cartography A method of marking off maps into areas.
  • noun motor racing The pattern of starting positions of the drivers for a race.
  • verb To mark with a grid.
  • verb To assign a reference grid to.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an electrode placed between the cathode and anode of a vacuum tube to control the flow of electrons through the tube
  • noun a system of high tension cables by which electrical power is distributed throughout a region
  • noun a cooking utensil of parallel metal bars; used to grill fish or meat
  • noun a perforated or corrugated metal plate used in a storage battery as a conductor and support for the active material
  • noun a pattern of regularly spaced horizontal and vertical lines

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for gridiron.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From a shortening of griddle or gridiron

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    February 15, 2010