gross

comparative grosser · comparative more gross · superlative grossest · superlative most gross

1. Remarkably great, big, vast in an often unpleasant way; (of behaviour) Highly or conspicuously offensive.

   a gross mistake; gross injustice; gross negligence; a gross insult

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   Henry IV. My gracious uncle, let me know my fault: / On what condition stands it and wherein? / Edmund of Langley. Even in condition of the worst degree, / In gross rebellion and detested treason:

   1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]

   Your very faults, how gross soere, to me / Have something pleasing in ’em.

   1682, Aphra Behn, “The City-Heiress”, in et al., London: D. Brown, act IV, scene 1, page 40

   […] I thank Heaven I have had Time to reflect on my past Life, where though I cannot charge myself with any gross Villainy, yet I can discern Follies and Vices too sufficient to repent and to be ashamed of;

   1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 10, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book XVIII, page 336

   [H]ad his actions been what Wickham represented them, so gross a violation of every thing right could hardly have been concealed from the world; […]

   1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC

   [H]e has been found guilty, on the clearest evidence, first, of stealing a valuable motor-car; secondly, of driving to the public danger; and, thirdly, of gross impertinence to the rural police.

   1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, chapter 6, in The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC

   Synonyms: serious, flagrant, shameful, appalling, egregious, unmitigated

2. Excluding any deductions; including all associated amounts.

   gross domestic product; gross income; gross weight

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   What is the gross sum that I owe thee?

   c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

   For a man of his habits the house and the hundred and twenty pounds a year which he had inherited from his mother were enough to supply all worldly needs. Resources do not depend upon gross amounts, but upon the proportion of spendings to takings.

   1878 January–December, Thomas Hardy, chapter I, in The Return of the Native […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], published 1878, →OCLC

   But please notice that even these wretched earnings are gross earnings. On top of this there are all kinds of stoppages which are deducted from the miner's wages every week.

   1937 March 8, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter III, in The Road to Wigan Pier, London: Victor Gollancz, published May 1937, →OCLC, part I, page 41

   Synonyms: whole, entire, overall, total, aggregate · Antonyms: net

3. medicineSeen without a microscope (usually for a tissue or an organ); at a large scale; not detailed.

   gross anatomy

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   We are accustomed to look for the gross and immediate effect and to ignore all else. Unless this appears promptly and in such obvious form that it cannot be ignored, we deny the existence of hazard.

   1962, Rachel Carson, chapter 12, in Silent Spring, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 190

   Synonyms: macroscopic · Antonyms: microscopic

4. AustraliaCanadaUSinformalCausing disgust.

   I threw up all over the bed. It was totally gross.

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   Mary Ann spent her lunch hour at Hastings, picking out just the right tie for Norman. The hint might not be terribly subtle, she decided, but somebody had to do something about that gross, gravy-stained clip-on number.

   1978, Armistead Maupin, “Ties That Bind”, in Tales of the City, New York: Harper & Row, published 1989, page 293

   The next-door neighbor’s cat coughed up a hairball one day and the hair was not the cat’s. “That’s so gross!”

   2002, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, New York: Picador, Book 3, p. 306

   Synonyms: disgusting, gro, grody, grotesque, grotty, nasty, revolting, yucky

5. Lacking refinement in behaviour or manner; offending a standard of morality.

   Verjuice. She certainly has Talents. / Lady Sneerwell. But her manner is gross.

   1777 May 8 (first performance), [Richard Brinsley Sheridan], The School for Scandal; a Comedy; […], Dublin: [s.n.], published 1780, →OCLC, (please specify the page)

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   Pog. Forsooth my Maister said that hee loved her almost as well as hee loved parmasent, and swore […] that shee wanted such a Nose as his was, to be as pretty a young woeman, as was any in Parma. Do. Oh grose!

   c. 1626 or 1629–1633 (first performance), [John Ford], ’Tis Pitty Shee’s a Whore […], London: […] Nicholas Okes for Richard Collins, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act I

   But man to know God is a difficulty, except by a mean he himself inure, which is to know God’s creatures that be: at first them that be of the grossest nature, and then […] them that be more pure.

   1874, A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Dodsley et al.

   All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion—or rather as a transition from the subject that started their conversation—such talk had been distressingly out of place.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: coarse, rude, vulgar, obscene, impure

6. Lacking refinement; not of high quality.

   The flowers of Rubens are gross and rude […]

   1860, John Ruskin, chapter 10, in Modern Painters […], volume V, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, , § 5

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   He scorned my wholesome kennel fare, toothing out dainties and leaving the grosser portions to be finished by the other dogs.

   1944, Emily Carr, “Lorenzo Was Registered”, in The House of All Sorts

   Synonyms: coarse, rough, unrefined · Antonyms: fine

7. Dense, heavy.

   ⁠Thy spirit ere our fatal loss / ⁠Did ever rise from high to higher; / ⁠As mounts the heavenward altar-fire, / As flies the lighter thro’ the gross.

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XL”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 62

8. Heavy in proportion to one's height; having a lot of excess flesh.

   He collected a number of injuries that stopped him jousting, and then in middle age became stout, eventually gross.

   2013, Hilary Mantel, “Royal Bodies”, in London Review of Books, 35.IV

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   Kitty noticed that her sister’s pregnancy had blunted her features and in her black dress she looked gross and blousy.

   1925, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter 79, in The Painted Veil, London: Heinemann, published 1934

   Synonyms: great, large, bulky, fat, obese

9. poeticDifficult or impossible to see through.

   Couragious Lancaster, imbrace thy king, / And as grosse vapours perish by the sunne, / Euen so let hatred with thy soueraigne smile,

   1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC, (please specify the page)

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   For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 60:2

   A pestilent and most corrosive steam, / Like a gross fog Boeotian, rising fast, / And fast condensed upon the dewy sash, / Asks egress;

   1785, William Cowper, “Book III. The Garden.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 116

   [A] larger life / Upon his own impinging, with swift glimpse / Of spacious circles luminous with mind, / To which the ethereal substance of his own / Seems but gross cloud to make that visible, / Touched to a sudden glory round the edge.

   1869 December (indicated as 1870 January), James Russell Lowell, “The Cathedral”, in James Thomas Fields, editor, The Atlantic Monthly: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics, volume XXV, number CXLVII, Boston, Mass.: Fields, Osgood, & Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 9

   Synonyms: thick, heavy

10. archaicNot sensitive in perception or feeling.

    For he is groſſe and like the maſſie earth, / That mooues not vpwards, nor by princely deeds / Doth meane to ſoare aboue the highest ſort.

    c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vii

    2 more examples

    For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

    1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 13:15

    A thousand liveried Angels lacky her [the chaste soul], / Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, / And in cleer dream, and solemn vision / Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear.

    Comus

    1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC

    Synonyms: dull, witless

11. obsoleteEasy to perceive.

    […] though the truth of it stands off as gross / As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it.

    1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]

    Synonyms: obvious, clear

plural grosses

1. countableuncountableTwelve dozen = 144.

   We need to order three gross of Torx screws for next week.

2. countableuncountableThe total amount (of goods, money, etc) before taxes, expenses, exceptions, tares, or similar deductions are subtracted.
3. countableuncountableThe bulk; the mass.

present singular third person grosses · participle present grossing · participle past grossed · past grossed

1. transitiveTo earn money, not including expenses.

   The movie grossed three million on the first weekend.

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   The film grossed $464 million worldwide, ensconcing her in the Hollywood A-list.

   2014 January 21, Hermione Hoby, “Julia Roberts interview for August: Osage County – 'I might actually go to hell for this ...': Julia Roberts reveals why her violent, Oscar-nominated performance in August: Osage County made her feel 'like a terrible person' [print version: 'I might actually go to hell for this ...' (18 January 2014, p. R4)]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)

plural Grosses

1. countableuncountableA surname from Middle English, originally a nickname for a big man, from Middle English gros (“large”).

   This is FRESH AIR. I'm Dave Davies, in today for Terry Gross.

   2022 May 12, Dave Davies, “Has Tucker Carlson created the most racist show in the history of cable news?”, in NPR, spoken by Dave Davies, archived from the original on 28 Jun 2023

2. countableuncountableA village in Nebraska, having a population of two as of 2010.