"grounds" in the noun sense
1. land, dry land, earth, ground, solid ground, terra firma
the solid part of the earth's surface
"the evidence that smoking causes lung cancer is very compelling"
"the plane turned away from the sea and moved back over land"
"the earth shook for several minutes"
"he dropped the logs on the ground"
2. reason, ground
a rational motive for a belief or action
"it was a small house with almost no yard"
"the reason that war was declared"
"the grounds for their declaration"
3. earth, ground
the loose soft material that makes up a large part of the land surface
"they dug into the earth outside the church"
4. footing, basis, ground
a relation that provides the foundation for something
"he had no cause to complain"
"they had good reason to rejoice"
"they were on a friendly footing"
"he worked on an interim basis"
5. ground
a position to be won or defended in battle (or as if in battle
"it is a Middle Eastern custom to read your future in your coffee grounds"
"they gained ground step by step"
"they fought to regain the lost ground"
6. background, ground
the part of a scene (or picture) that lies behind objects in the foreground
"he posed her against a background of rolling hills"
7. land, ground, soil
material in the top layer of the surface of the earth in which plants can grow (especially with reference to its quality or use
"the land had never been plowed"
"good agricultural soil"
8. ground
a relatively homogeneous percept extending back of the figure on which attention is focused
9. ground, earth
a connection between an electrical device and a large conducting body, such as the earth (which is taken to be at zero voltage)
10. ground
art) the surface (as a wall or canvas) prepared to take the paint for a painting
11. flat coat, ground, primer, priming, primer coat, priming coat, undercoat
the first or preliminary coat of paint or size applied to a surface
"grounds" in the verb sense
1. anchor, ground
fix firmly and stably
"anchor the lamppost in concrete"
2. ground
confine or restrict to the ground
"After the accident, they grounded the plane and the pilot"
3. ground
place or put on the ground
4. ground
instruct someone in the fundamentals of a subject
5. ground, strand, run aground
bring to the ground
"the storm grounded the ship"
6. ground, run aground
hit or reach the ground
7. ground
throw to the ground in order to stop play and avoid being tackled behind the line of scrimmage
8. ground
hit a groundball
"he grounded to the second baseman"
9. ground
hit onto the ground
10. prime, ground, undercoat
cover with a primer apply a primer to
11. ground
connect to a ground
"ground the electrical connections for safety reasons"
12. establish, base, ground, found
use as a basis for found on
"base a claim on some observation"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
Princeton University "About WordNet®."
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