Dictionary

To furnish with grates; to protect with a grating or crossbars

Example: to grate a window

To shred (things, usually foodstuffs), by rubbing across a grater

Example: I need to grate the cheese before the potato is cooked.

To make an unpleasant rasping sound, often as the result of rubbing against something

Example: Listening to his teeth grate all day long drives me mad.

(by extension) to get on one's nerves; to irritate, annoy

Example: She’s nice enough, but she can begin to grate if there is no-one else to talk to.

(by extension) to annoy

A barrier that has parallel or crossed bars blocking a passage but admitting air.

A frame of iron bars to hold a fire.

The loose material that comes from something being grated.

Example: Add a few gratings of nutmeg to the hot milk.

An optical system of close equidistant and parallel lines or bars, especially lines ruled on a polished surface, used for producing spectra by diffraction.

(typically of a voice) Harsh and unpleasant.

Abrasive; tending to annoy.