Meaning of ground In English

• 0 the surface of the earth:

  • I sat down on the ground.

  • soft/stony ground

  • The ground was frozen hard and was impossible to dig.

  • a football ground

  • The lake has become a dumping ground for toxic chemicals.

  • skills learnt on the training ground (= place where sports teams practise)

  • We went for a walk around the hospital grounds.

• 1 a reason, cause, or argument:

  • She is suing the company on grounds of unfair dismissal.

  • UK Do you have any ground for suspecting them?

  • [ + to infinitive ] We have grounds to believe that you have been lying to us.

  • [ + that ] He refused to answer on the grounds that the question violated his rights to privacy.

• 2 an area of knowledge or experience:

  • When the conversation turns to politics he's on familiar ground (= he knows a lot about this subject).

  • Once we'd found some common ground (= things we both knew about) we got along very well together.

  • The lectures covered a lot of ground (= included information on many different subjects).

  • I enjoyed her first novel, but I felt in the second she was going over the same ground (= dealing with the same area of experience).

• 3 a wire that makes a connection between a piece of electrical equipment and the ground, so the user is protected from feeling an electric shock if the equipment develops a fault

• 4 the small grains of coffee left at the bottom of a cup or other container that has had coffee in it

• 5 past simple and past participle of grind

• 6 If a ship is grounded, it cannot move because it has hit solid ground:

  • The oil tanker was grounded on a sandbank.

  • The snowstorm meant that all planes were grounded.

• 7 to forbid (= refuse to allow) a child or young person from going out as a punishment:

  • My parents grounded me for a week.

• 8 to connect a piece of electrical equipment to the ground with a wire:

  • You could get a nasty shock from that water heater if it isn't grounded properly.

• 9 to be based firmly on something:

  • Fiction should be grounded in reality.

  • Most phobias are grounded in childhood experiences.

• 10 past simple and past participle of grind

• 11 the surface of the earth or of a piece of land:

  • We laid a blanket on the ground for our picnic.

• 12 an area of knowledge or experience; a subject:

  • This teacher just keeps going over the same ground again and again.

• 13 a reason, cause, or argument:

  • [ + that clause ] He refused to answer on the grounds that he’d promised to keep it secret.

• 14 a connection between a piece of electrical equipment and the earth, or a wire that makes this connection

• 15 to punish an older child by not allowing the child to go out or be involved in social activities:

  • My parents grounded me for a week.

• 16 to have a reason, cause, or argument for your actions or beliefs:

  • His beliefs are grounded in his experience.

• 17 to put or keep on the ground:

  • All flights have been grounded because of the snowstorm.

• 18 a reason for something:

  • on (the) grounds of sth The doctor refused to surrender patient records on grounds of confidentiality.

  • on the grounds that Researchers shut down the trial on the grounds that the vaccine was proving ineffective

  • grounds for sth Only 13 of the contracts examined listed incompetence as legitimate grounds for dismissal.

  • on health/environmental/legal grounds The college was shut on health and safety grounds.

• 19 to make someone work very hard, especially so that they become ill or extremely tired:

  • Although we worked everyone into the ground, we didn't get the job done in time.

  • They were running themselves into the ground.

• 20 to use something so much that it breaks or stops working:

  • They decided to run the car into the ground instead of changing it.

• 21 to become more popular or successful:

  • Despite making ground within her own party, she still has to watch her back.

  • gain/make ground on sb The search engine is continuing to gain ground on the market leader.

  • The shares have steadily made ground.

  • gain/make ground against sth The Euro continued to gain ground against the pound and the dollar through the course of the week.

• 22 if a project or activity gets off the ground, it starts or starts to be successful:

  • There is a difference between a project which never gets off the ground and one which suddenly goes bad.

• 23 to start a project or activity or to start making it successful:

  • A lot more money will be required to get this project off the ground.

• 24 to become less popular or successful:

  • Smaller parties always lose ground in elections.

  • give/lose ground to sb The firm is continuing to give ground to its foreign rivals.

• 25 to prevent a ship or aircraft from sailing or flying:

  • The bad weather meant that helicopters were grounded.