nutmeg-grater

You could cut her fingers off with a dull knife, or rub them off on a nutmeg-grater, and she would not experience the slightest sensation.

Good-bye, Jack 2010

She saw before her only a boy, who was shaking her hand with a hand so calloused that it felt like a nutmeg-grater and rasped her skin, and who was saying jerkily: — The greatest time of my life.

Chapter 2 2010

She had got the saucepan, and the spoon, and the tumbler, and the nutmeg-grater, and the wine — but not the egg, the sugar, or the spices — when she heard him above, walking backward and forward noisily in his room; exciting hi mself on the old subject again, beyond all doubt.

No Name 2003

In three of the lower windows, on a level with the court-yard, are revolving cupboards, like half-barrels, and at the back of each is a plate of tin, perforated like the top of a nutmeg-grater.

Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of the World Anonymous

Hannah received a slight exhilaration of life; she moved about the kitchen more briskly, let her cap get somewhat awry, and twice in the course of the morning was seen to wear a grim smile, as Mary, in her active desire to please, brought the flour-duster and nutmeg-grater to her help, before the rigid lady had quite found out that they were wanted.

The Old Homestead Ann S. Stephens

When Cake is Scorched -- If a cake is scorched on the top or bottom, grate over it lightly with a nutmeg-grater instead of scraping it with a knife.

Fowler's Household Helps Over 300 Useful and Valuable Helps About the Home, Carefully Compiled and Arranged in Convenient Form for Frequent Use Arthur L. Fowler

So whether the ground proved rough as a nutmeg-grater or ribbed like a gridiron, I soon said good-night to the blushing stars above me and to the acres of slumbering soldiers all around.

With the Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to Koomati Poort and Back Edward P. Lowry

He called himself Charles Pope, stated that he was an American citizen of Austrian birth, spoke French, English and half a dozen languages that sounded like a nutmeg-grater, and had an enormous appreciation of his own accomplishments.

Head Hunters of the Amazon: Seven Years of Exploration and Adventure 1923

And as all the others had the obvious things -- such as a nutmeg-grater or a neck of mutton, or a nomlette -- my five won easily.

Happy Days 1919

I have an impression on my mind which I cannot distinguish from actual remembrance, of the touch of Peggotty's forefinger as she used to hold it out to me, and of its being roughened by needlework, like a pocket nutmeg-grater.

David Copperfield Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 1917