From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgrindinggrind‧ing /ˈɡraɪndɪŋ/ adjective [only before noun] 1 POORSAD/UNHAPPYvery difficult and unpleasant, and never seeming to improve a country devastated by civil war and grinding poverty2 CSOUNDa grinding noise is the continuous unpleasant noise of machinery parts rubbing together
Examples from the Corpus
grinding• A grinding ache grew within her, grew and intensified.• A terrible grinding crunch struck at us like a solid barrier.• There is no visible grinding poverty and no antagonism towards tourists.grinding poverty• Consequently, wage employment is the primary means by which they can be lifted out of grinding poverty.• Their first years together were a time of grinding poverty.• Yet, regrettably, the lasting impression is of a merely superficial look at grinding poverty.• For generations the Sandovals, like millions of their fellow countrymen, had suffered from grinding poverty and deprivation.• Until recently her life had been an endless cycle of grinding poverty and growing hopelessness.• There is no visible grinding poverty and no antagonism towards tourists. 