grit one's teeth

grit one's teeth (third-person singular simple present grits one's teeth, present participle gritting one's teeth, simple past and past participle gritted one's teeth or (nonstandard) grit one's teeth)

1. To clench one's teeth together tightly because of pain, anger, frustration, or self-assurance.
   • 2019 December 10, Yacht Club Games, "Story" (Shield Knight), in Shovel Knight Showdown (version 4.1), Nintendo Switch, scene: ending:

     [Shield Knight] LOOKED WITH DREAD THROUGH THE EYES OF THE ENCHANTRESS. SHE WAS TRAPPED AGAIN! SHIELD KNIGHT GRIT HER TEETH. SHOVEL KNIGHT WOULDN'T GIVE UP, AND NEITHER WOULD SHE.

2. (idiomatic) To face up to a difficult or disagreeable situation and deal with it.

   Synonyms: face up to, bite the bullet, grin and bear it, suck it up

   There's a storm coming, so I grit my teeth and start rowing with all my might.

   • 1964 July, “Tokaido line trouble”, in Modern Railways, page 52:

     Japan's revolutionary New Tokaido Line, the 310-mile, 150 m.p.h. route between Tokyo and Osaka that is due to open for passenger traffic in October, has run into the same kind of budgetary trouble that held up our own LMR electrification, though the Japanese Government, unlike our own, has apparently gritted its teeth and allowed the project to go ahead to planned completion.

• bit between one's teeth