A quantity of anything.
1833. There has been a mighty grist of rain lately up above.—J. K. Paulding, ‘The Banks of the Ohio,’ i. 133–4 (Lond.).
1837. What should I do but see a hull grist on ’em [Injuns] dodging among the bushes at the river.—R. M. Bird, ‘Nick of the Woods,’ i. 184 (Lond.).
1840. Some smart grists of rain has fell.—Haliburton, ‘The Clockmaker,’ iii. xviii. (N.E.D.)
1847. He owes old Sambo, the colored man, a whull grist o’ fourpences for blackin’ his boots, runnin’ of arn’ds and sich like small chores.—J. K. Paulding, ‘American Comedies,’ p. 142.
1848. In half an hour, I’d the hull grist o’ the marmen belongin’ to that settlement cooped up in the cavern.—W. E. Burton, ‘Waggeries,’ p. 24 (Phila.).
1853. Say, Squire, them there cakes is “bout east,” fetch us another grist on ’em.—The Columbian, Olympia (W.T.), April 16.
1853. That old Greke that folks tell so much about never poured out sich a grist of oratory in all his born days.—Seba Smith, ‘Major Jack Downing,’ p. 411 (1860).
1859. Every year we grind out a grist of officers, and they come out of the hopper with epaulets on their shoulders, and green or red stripes up and down each side of their pants.—Mr. Lovejoy of Illinois, House of Repr., Feb. 18: Cong. Globe, p. 1132.
1910. One Day’s Grist. A book of personal essays, three or four juvenile stories, two fat biographies, a book of travel, a treatise on electricity and a work on modern religious thought were among the books that made up this heterogeneous collection, the gathering for a single day.—N.Y. Evening Post, April 21.
