grid

noun11

1. •
   a set of straight lines that cross to make rows of squares of the same size
2. •
   A tiling of the plane with regular polygons; a honeycomb.
3. •
   A method of marking off maps into areas.
4. •
   A system for delivery of electricity, consisting of various substations, transformers and generators, connected by wire.

   • You can't turn off the building from here; you have to shut down the whole grid. — 1988
5. •
   The pattern of starting positions of the drivers for a race.

   • McLaren's Lewis Hamilton fought up from the back of the grid to eighth, with team-mate Jenson Button taking ninth. — 2012
6. •
   A battery-plate somewhat like a grating, especially a zinc plate in a primary battery, or a lead plate in a secondary or storage battery.
7. •
   A grating of parallel bars; a gridiron.
8. •
   An openwork ceiling above the stage or studio, used for affixing lights etc.

   • Everything on the grid – all the backdrops and curtains, anything that has to move up and down from the fly-tower – has to be counterweighted. — 2018
9. •
   A system or structure of distributed computers working mostly on a peer-to-peer basis, used mainly to solve single and complex scientific or technical problems or to process data at high speeds (as in clusters).
10. •
    The third (or higher) electrode of a vacuum tube (triode or higher).
11. •
    (Australia, New-Zealand) A bicycle.

    • ‘Hop on the bar of my grid,’ said D'Arcy. ‘I'll double you round to meet some pals of ours.’ — 1963

verb3

1. •
   To mark with a grid.
2. •
   To assign a reference grid to.
3. •
   To enter in a grid.

   • On the SAT, to answer a grid-in question, you grid in your answer by filling out the ovals.

noun1

1. •
   (offensive, old-fashioned) Acronym of gay-related immunodeficiency (“AIDS”).