Meaning
In Hawaiʻi Creole and local slang, grindz or grinds means food or things to eat; the related verb grind means to eat.
How it is used
The University of Hawaiʻi Sato Center uses the current Pidgin phrase 'Anyone got grindz?' in discussion of public language, while UH Hilo material uses grind as a verb meaning eat and student media uses grindz naturally in food contexts. The z spelling visually represents the voiced plural ending but grinds is also common.
Examples
- “Anybody get grindz for the potluck?”
- “We picked up some good grindz after class.”
Pronunciation
/ɡraɪndz/ · GRYNDZ
Tone and register
Casual, friendly, and food-focused. It can sound strongly local or Pidgin-marked depending on the speaker and surrounding grammar.
Visitor guidance
Recognize grindz as local/Pidgin food vocabulary but do not build a novelty accent around it. Go Hawaiʻi advises visitors not to imitate Pidgin unless fluent because performance can be perceived as mockery or disrespect.
Cultural context
Grindz is useful because it connects Hawaiʻi Creole to an everyday domain—food—without reducing Pidgin to comic pronunciation. It appears naturally in community and campus discourse alongside the verb grind 'eat.'
Places represented
Open the reviewed place guide for each regional sense carried by this canonical entry.