Dic: come to a grinding halt, grind to a halt

• A car will come to a grinding halt if you put water in the petrol tank.

PHRASE : PHR after v | If you say that something comes to a grinding halt, you are emphasizing that it stops very suddenly, especially before it was meant to.

Cf:

• The peace process has ground to a halt while Israel struggles to form a new government.
• The tanks ground to a halt after a hundred yards because the fuel had been siphoned out.
• Every day about noon, traffic in town grinds to a halt.

1. PHRASE : V inflects | If a country's economy or something such as a process grinds to a halt, it gradually becomes slower or less active until it stops.
2. PHRASE : V inflects | If a vehicle grinds to a halt, it stops slowly and noisily.
3. Fig. to slow down and stop.

Cf:

• Their grandfather had left his village in order to escape the grinding poverty.
• Nursing was ill-paid and grindingly hard work.

ADJ : ADJ n | If you describe a bad situation as grinding, you mean it never gets better, changes, or ends.

... Cobuild, http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/grind