English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for speakers of other languages learning English. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
But be sure to ground your touchdown dance or celebratory round of kombucha in the recognition that this was one of the easier fossil fuel mega-projects to stop. Of the oil sands pipeline proposals made in the last decade, Energy East has always had the most questionable economic prospects and held the most risk for the Quebec-dependent Liberal government.
Social movements played a huge part in derailing Energy East
Does 'ground' here mean 'restrict'?
"Ground" as a verb has several meanings.
One is what you are thinking of, to "restrict". This meaning comes from aeronautics. If an airplane or a pilot is unfit to fly, we say that he or it is "grounded", that is, not allowed to leave the ground. From there the word has come to be used whenever someone is restricted to some "home base". Like parents may tell a teenager that he is "grounded", meaning he is not allowed to leave the house. Or a boss may tell an employee that he is "grounded", meaning not allowed to pursue some project that he wanted to.
But that's not the meaning here.
The relevant definition of "grounded" is "provide a basis for" or "supplied with basics". For example, we might say, "Bob is well-grounded in basic physics", meaning that he know basic physics very well and can apply this to more complex subjects. Or, "Smith's political theories are grounded in the works of Hume and Friedman", meaning that these works are the basis for his theories.
In this case, the writer is saying that celebrations should be based on the recognition of certain facts. You shouldn't base your celebrations on other ideas or theories, but on the ideas that the writer presents here.
No - this is not the sense of "grounding" a teenager by restricting privileges.
Rather, it is saying - yes, we won a victory, but it was an easy victory, so be mindful of that. Don't get overconfident, we still have work to do. Ground in this sense is:
[TRANSITIVE] [OFTEN PASSIVE] to base a decision or idea on a particular thing
It was not a difficult victory, so don't get carried away when celebrating it. Remain grounded, with your your eye on reality, your mental state stable, your feet planted on terra firma.
