Definition of grind someone down in English:

phrasal verb

• Wear someone down with continuous harsh treatment.

  ‘mundane everyday things which just grind people down’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The job was grinding him down without making him rich.’
  • ‘A prominent public figure, she was also the survivor of an unhappy family, and private sadness had ground her down by the time she reached her 50s.’
  • ‘I've been doing this kind of thing for more than two years now, and it's grinding me down.’
  • ‘As much as you try to be professional, it does grind you down.’
  • ‘I suspect they were trying to grind me down into submission.’
  • ‘The conditions of Indonesian women in 1900 were atrocious; they were ground down by their social position in general, by the aristocracy and by Dutch imperialism.’
  • ‘We know that his years of drudgery have ground him down.’
  • ‘‘We are fighting a continual battle and eventually it grinds you down,’ she said.’
  • ‘And I agree, the pain does grind us down and is something that can't really be explained in words.’

  Synonyms

  oppress, persecute, tyrannize, suppress

  View synonyms