grindhouse

[ grahynd-hous ]

nounSlang.
  1. Also grind house . a burlesque house, especially one providing continuous entertainment at reduced prices.

  2. a movie theater with inexpensive admission pricing that shows low-budget films one after another, throughout the day and all or most of the night.

adjectiveSlang.
  1. of or relating to the low-budget films shown in these theaters, as exploitation films or B-movies: It’s an old grindhouse flick with cannibals hunting teens through an abandoned warehouse.His art films have a cheap grindhouse aesthetic.

Origin of grindhouse

1
First recorded in 1920–25; grind (in the combined sense “to operate an early movie projector by turning a handle or crank” and “a low-budget film that a studio grinds out”) + house

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

British Dictionary definitions for grindhouse

grindhouse

/ (ˈɡraɪndˌhaʊs) /


noun
  1. mainly US

    • a cinema specializing in violent or exploitative films such as martial arts movies from Japan and Hong Kong

    • (as modifier): a grindhouse film

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012