trit- +

1. Feeding on fragmented particulate or eating very small pieces, or particles, of organic matter.
2. An organism which feeds largely upon organic detritus.

All organisms eventually die, and detritivores are a class of organisms that feed on their dead bodies.

Actually, detritivores can themselves be divided into a food web, based on the feeding relationships among the species. In this sense, primary detritivores feed directly on the dead biomass, while secondary detritivores feed on these direct consumers of detritus.

1. Eating dead organic tissues and organisms in an ecosystem.
2. Feeding on fragmented particulate (particles) organic matter.
3. Subsisting on particulate matter (detritus), a mode of existence important in certain ecosystems; such as, in aquatic environments.

1. Fragmented particulate organic matter, or very small pieces of organic matter, derived from the decomposition of plant and animal remains; organic debris or trash.
2. Debris or discarded material.
3. In geology, matter produced by the detrition or wearing away of exposed surfaces, especially the gravel, sand, clay, or other material eroded and washed away by an aqueous agency; a mass or formation of this nature.
4. In ecology, organic debris formed by the decomposition of plants and animals.

1. A surgical instrument designed to crush or to fragment stones and thereby facilitate spontaneous or operative removal.
2. An instrument for crushing stone in the bladder into minute particles which can be passed through the urethra while urinating.

Detritus produced by the disintegration and decomposition of vegetable organisms.

1. Something that causes great difficulty, affliction, or distress; such as, an ordeal: "I have experienced the trials and tribulations of a struggling lexicographer."
2. An experience that tests one's endurance, patience, or religious faith.
3. Etymology: from Old French tribulacion (12th century), from Late Latin tribulationem, tribulatio, "distress, trouble, affliction"; from tribulatus, tribulare, "to oppress, afflict"; a figurative use by Christian writers of Latin tribulare "to press"; also possibly, "to thresh out grain;" from tribulum "threshing sledge", from stem of terere, "to rub" + -bulum, a suffix forming names of tools.

It originally came from Greek; then through Latin, "to press; affliction"; and by extension, "distress, great trial", or "affliction".

The Roman tribulum was a sledge consisting of a wooden block studded with sharp pieces of flint or iron teeth. It was used to bring force and pressure against wheat in grinding out grain.

The machine suggested the way trouble grinds people down and oppresses them, tribulations becoming another word for troubles and afflictions. The word is first recorded in English in 1330.

The Romans ground out their corn (grain) with a heavy roller, mentioned in Vergil’s Georgics among agricultural instruments: the tribulum, a diminutive noun, from tritere, trit-, "to rub", from Greek tribein, "to rub".

"Being ground under and pressed out" made an excellent metaphor to express the trials and tribulations of the early Christians.

1. Worn out by constant use or repetition; devoid of freshness or novelty; hackneyed, commonplace, stale.
2. Well worn; worn out by rubbing; frayed; such as, a road or path that is well-trodden, beaten, or frequented.

1. In a common manner.
2. A reference to being well worn; worn out by rubbing; frayed.

The grinding surface of a tooth.

Capable of being triturated; that is, rubbed, crushed, or ground into particles.

To rub, crush, grind, or pound into fine particles or a powder; to pulverize.

1. The act of reducing to a fine powder by grinding, rubbing, bruising, etc.
2. A condition of having been ground or rubbed into a fine powder.
3. A pharmacology powdered drug mixture of powdered drugs prepared pharmaceutically.
4. The mixing of an amalgam, usually of silver and mercury, for use in filling cavities in teeth.

Not contrite; not penitent, not regretful.

The beaten path, the safe path.

The beaten path is the safest path.