gristle, n.
(ˈgrɪs(ə)l)
Forms: 1– gristle, 4 grystil, -tyll, (grusle), 4–5 gristil, 5 grystyl(le, 6 gristel, -ell(e, -ill, grystell, gressell, 6–8 grissel(l, (7 crissel, cristle, grisle, 8 grissle). β. 5 north. girstelle, Sc. 6 girssill, 8 girsle.
[O.E. gristle = OFris. gristel, gristl, grestel, gerstel, EFris. grössel, grüssel, MLG. gristel, MHG. gruschel; cogn. with OE. grost gristle (Leiden glosses); synonymous forms of similar sound are OHG. c(h)rustula, -ila, crostila, -ela, -illa; chrustilîn, crustili (MHG. krostel, krossel, krosel, krustel; also kruspel, krospel). The mutual relation of these forms, and the etymology, are obscure.]
1. A tough flexible tissue, of a whitish colour, in vertebrate animals; = cartilage 1.
| a 700 Epinal Gloss. 174 Cartilaga,..næsgristlae. a 800 Erfurt Gloss. 350 Cartilago, naesgristle. c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 158/22 Cartilago, gristle. c 1050 Voc. ibid. 414/1 Gartilago, gristle. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. lix. (1495) 175 Grystyll is tendernes of the bones and is callyd cartilago in latyn. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 213/2 Grystylle of the nose, cartilago. 1483 Cath. Angl. 157/1 A Girstelle, cartilago. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §89 The hawe is a sorance in a horse eye, and is lyke gristell. 1589 Cogan Haven Health cxli. (1636) 142 The Eares are nothing else but gristill and skinne. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 943 Very thin bones and gristle bound or vnited by Synchondrosis. a 1711 Ken Hymnotheo Poet. Wks. 1721 III. 21 The soft spinal gristle of his back, He turns and winds. 1776–96 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) II. 47 Leaves egg-spear-shaped..serratures like gristle. 1802 Paley Nat. Theol. viii. §3 The bones which work against each other, are tipped with gristle. 1843 Carpenter Anim. Phys. 42 Another tissue of which cells form the principal part, is that termed cartilage or gristle. |
b. fig. with reference to the gristly nature of the bones in infancy. in the gristle: in an initiatory, unformed, or embryonic stage of existence.
| 1775 Burke Sp. Conc. Amer. 18 A people who are still, as it were, in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood. 1865 Morn. Star 22 May, As yet, of course, this business is in the gristle. 1880 E. Kirke Garfield 46 Talleyrand once said to the first Napoleon that ‘the United States was a giant without bones’. Since that time our gristle has been rapidly hardening. |
2. A structure or formation consisting of such tissue; a gristly part; = cartilage 1 b. (Now rare in pl.)
| a 1240 Sawles Warde in Cott. Hom. 251 Tadden and froggen þe freoteð ham ut te ehnen ant te nease gristles. 13.. Coer de L. 2144 The emperour of evil trusle Carved off his nose by the grusle. c 1325 Gloss. W. de Bibbysw. in Wright Voc. 145 Un tendroun, a gristel. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 23 A gristil is cold & drie, & is neischere þan a boon. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon xlii. 140 Y⊇ grystell of his nose as grete as the mossell of an oxe. 1574 Sc. Acts Jas. VI (1814) III. 87 Gif thay happin tobe convicted, To be adiugeit tobe..burnt throw the girssill of the rycht eare w{supt} ane het Irne. 1597 A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 13 b/2 The synnues, Tendones, and Cartilages or grissells. 1601 Munday Downf. Earl Huntington iii. iii. G j b, Is this a pawe..To holde a tender hand in?.. Looke I pray, His armes are gristles. 1658 A. Fox Wurtz' Surg. ii. xxv. 152 The bones and crissels of the Nose. 1747 H. Glasse Cookery xii. 126 Take six Pounds of good Pork, free from Skin and Gristles, and Fat. 1820 Shelley Œdipus i. 63 To fill our colons With rich blood, or make brawn out of our gristles. 1822 Scott Nigel xxiii, We would slit it [the nose] up to the gristle. |
† b. In various transf. senses: (see quots.). Obs.
| 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe (1539) 31 b, The kernelles and gristell whiche are in the rootes, if they be welle digested they make nourishment. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. xxv. 308 The best Ammoniacum..pure and without shardes, splinters, or stonie gristels or gravell. Ibid. iii. cxiv. 307 Galbanum is also a gumme or liquor..and the best is gristel, or betwixt hard and soft. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 85/1 The Gristle of the Walnut is that as lies between the two halves of the kernel, within the shell. 1785 Burns Ep. to J. Lapraik 1 Apr. xxii, To conclude my lang epistle, As my auld pen's worn to the grissle. |
c. Sc. The nose.
| 1790 A. Wilson Ep. to E. Picken Poet. Wks. (1846) 109 Whiles a glass to heet my gab, And snuff to smart my girsle. |
† 3. fig. A tender or delicate person. Obs.
| a 1553 Udall Royster D. i. iv. (Arb.) 27 Ah sir, be good to hir, she is but a gristle, Ah sweete lambe and coney. 1591 Lyly Endym. v. ii. 73 Sam. We will helpe you to find a young ladie. Top. I love no grissels,..I desire old matrons. 1623 Massinger Bondman i. ii, I am a gristle, and these spider fingers Will never hold a sword. a 1652 Brome Mad Couple v. ii. (1653) G 6 b, Alas y'are but a grissell, Weake picking meat. |
4. attrib., as † gristle-ring; † gristle-bone = sense 2.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xii. (1495) 116 Whan the voys of thayer smyte to the grystil-boon, there it is gretly holpe. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 148 In þe fore partie of þe brest þere is sett þe canne of þe lungis, þe which is compounned of gristil ryngis bounde togidere wiþ pannicleris ligamentis. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 106/1 Cruschylbone, or grystylbone, cartilago. 1557–8 T. Phaer æneid vii. T iij b, While the poyson..gropes her gristlebones, and venim droppes her sences drinkes. 1886 Pall Mall G. 22 Oct. 11/1 Four other eighty thousands not yet reached manhood and womanhood, or gone beyond the gristle stage. |