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I want another word for:

grind thoroughly or grind smoothly, as in "Help me to grind this pepper thoroughly."

i need proper words that could be use instead. I don't know whether you are getting my point. I'm struggling to find the appropriate English equivalent.

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    – user140086
    Jan 31, 2016 at 15:31
  • Grind something literally? Grind someone as in defeat them?
    – NVZ ♦
    Jan 31, 2016 at 15:39
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    Triturate or comminute (kidding aside: pulverize).
    – Dan Bron
    Jan 31, 2016 at 15:39
  • Other options include lap for solid surfaces. But if you're talking about grinding to a powder, that wouldn't work.
    – Chris H
    Jan 31, 2016 at 15:51
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    "Help me to grind this pepper thoroughly" is clear and proper usage. Do you still need an alternative?
    – Mark Hubbard
    Jan 31, 2016 at 16:24

6 Answers 6

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Finely grind the / this pepper.

Grind this / the pepper to a fine powder.

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  • Or just "help me to powder this pepper".
    – Graffito
    Jan 31, 2016 at 22:03
  • @Graffito to me the verb to powder means to put powder on something rather than to turn it into powder. If someone said "help me to powder this pepper" to me I'd be wondering what powder they wanted to put on it (and perhaps whether I was hearing them right, because that sounds quite a strange activity).
    – Glen_b
    Feb 1, 2016 at 4:53
  • @Glen_b - In Dictionaries, one of the meaning of the verb "to powder" is : "to reduce or convert to powder".
    – Graffito
    Feb 1, 2016 at 18:10
  • @Graffito Yes, I accept that it is a meaning of the word; what I am suggesting is that it's a meaning that's likely to be misunderstood.
    – Glen_b
    Feb 1, 2016 at 20:41
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There's also Pulverize, though that's more often used in an industrial or geological sense than a culinary one.

  1. to reduce to dust or powder, as by pounding or grinding.
  2. to demolish or crush completely.
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Help me mill this pepper.

The word mill brings to mind a salt/pepper mill -- but most often a flour mill, where wheat is ground into flour (a fine powder). All of these types of mills the input into a fine powder.

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  • I am a North American speaker, and if you said that to me it would take me a moment to figure out what you were talking about. It's like saying "please scale this pepper for me", when what you want me to do is measure its weight.
    – Beta
    Feb 1, 2016 at 1:08
  • 'To mill' is definitely a verb form.
    – user326608
    Feb 1, 2016 at 4:24
  • @Beta Are you really saying you think American English has lost the verb to mill?
    – Glen_b
    Feb 1, 2016 at 4:50
  • @Glen_b: No, I'm saying that in American English (at least the versions I'm used to) to grind pepper is a very common form, and I don't recall ever hearing or reading to mill pepper before today.
    – Beta
    Feb 1, 2016 at 5:05
  • I agree with you that milling pepper is a slightly strange thing to say. But then again it's a slightly strange thing to do in the household. You might grind pepper in your pepper grinder at home into a coarse powder. But the fine pepper you buy at the shop has already been milled into a fine powder. Where was it milled -- at the pepper mill of course!
    – Daron
    Feb 1, 2016 at 14:39
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How about grind evenly? That means the pepper has been ground such that all of it has achieved the same consistency.

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Normal, standard, non-technial English: Help me grind up this pepper. In everyday language, the thoroughly sounds a bit more formal. Commonly, grind up would be used.

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    In the North American dialects I've grown up speaking, it would just be grind, not grind up.
    – Marq
    Jan 31, 2016 at 19:07
  • To grind something is fine. But to replace the meaning of" to grind thoroughly", I'd add the up. The idea of grinding all the pepper on hand. "Have you ground up that pepper yet, Maggie? We need it right now." I suspect the OP is not an NA dialect speaker....and it all depends on context, which people happily avoid...
    – Lambie
    Jan 31, 2016 at 19:17
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I think 'mill' is the best, when related to pepper as the matter being ground especially - anything being prepared into a very fine form for cooking is likely being milled. Grate, atomize, or granulate are also good.

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