Standard Lemma guide

gristle

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈɡɹɪsəl/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɪsəl
  • CMU ARPABET: G R IH1 S AH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Cartilage; now especially: cartilage present, as a tough substance, in meat.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Bone not yet hardened by age and hard work.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, figuratively, uncountable

Examples

  • 1885, Ada Sarah Ballin, The Science of Dress in Theory and Practice, It. must be borne in mind that the bones of a young infant are little more than gristle, and are liable to bend, and so become deformed.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

tough elastic tissue; mostly converted to bone in adults

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cartilage

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: animal tissue

Narrower terms: meniscus, semilunar cartilage, fibrocartilage, hyaline cartilage, arytenoid, arytaenoid, arytenoid cartilage, thyroid cartilage, Adam's apple

History

Etymology

From Middle English gristel, grystyl, from Old English gristel (“gristle, cartilage”), Proto-West Germanic *gristl, of obscure origin; possibly from a pre-Germanic substrate language. Seemingly equivalent to a diminutive of Old English grist (“a grinding”), equivalent to modern English grist + -le; possibly related to Proto-Germanic *gredaną (“to crunch”). Cognate with Old Frisian gristel, gerstel (“gristle, cartilage”), Middle Low German gristel (“gristle”).

Across languages

Translations

37 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Basque: kurruska — cartilage
  • Bulgarian: хрущял (hruštjal) — cartilage
  • Chinese Mandarin: 軟骨 /软骨 (ruǎngǔ) — cartilage
  • Chinese Mandarin: 脆骨 (cuìgu) — cartilage
  • Danish: brusk — cartilage
  • Dutch: kraakbeen — cartilage
  • Finnish: rusto — cartilage
  • French: cartilage — cartilage
  • Georgian: ხრტილი (xrṭili) — cartilage
  • German: Knorpel — cartilage
  • Greek: τραγανόν (traganón) — cartilage
  • Ancient Greek: χόνδρος (khóndros) — cartilage
  • Gujarati: કાસ્થિ (kāsthi) — cartilage
  • Gujarati: કુમળું હાડકું (kumaḷũ hāḍkũ) — cartilage
  • Gujarati: કૂણું હાડકું (kūṇũ hāḍkũ) — cartilage
  • Hungarian: porc — cartilage
  • Ido: kartilago — cartilage
  • Japanese: 軟骨 (nankotsu) — cartilage
  • Latgalian: krimtele — cartilage
  • Latin: cartilāgō — cartilage
  • Latvian: skrimslis — cartilage
  • Lithuanian: kremzlė — cartilage
  • Māori: uaua — cartilage
  • Māori: pakaua — cartilage
  • Navajo: ooshgę́ę́zh — cartilage
  • Norwegian Bokmål: eitel — cartilage
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: eitel — cartilage
  • Plautdietsch: Gnurpel — cartilage
  • Polish: chrząstka — cartilage
  • Portuguese: cartilagem — cartilage
  • Romanian: zgârci — cartilage
  • Russian: хрящ (xrjašč) — cartilage
  • Russian: хря́щик (xrjáščik) — cartilage
  • Spanish: cartílago — cartilage
  • Spanish: ternilla — cartilage
  • Swedish: brosk — cartilage
  • Volapük: kartilag — cartilage