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 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.
  • 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.

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