grime

1. uncountableDirt, grease, soot, etc. that is ingrained and difficult to remove.

   Underneath all that soot, dirt and grime is the true beauty of the church in soft shades of sandstone.

   2 more examples

   […] ſhe ſweats a man may go ouer ſhoes in the grime of it.

   c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 92, column 1

   Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall. Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime.

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

2. uncountableentertainmentA genre of urban music that emerged in London, England, in the early 2000s, primarily a development of UK garage, dancehall, and hip hop.

present singular third person grimes · participle present griming · participle past grimed · past grimed

1. transitiveTo begrime; to cake with dirt.

   His skin was grimed with dust, for he had ridden hard in scorching heat, and was anxious and impatient to get on.

   1918, Harold Bindloss, The Buccaneer Farmer

   2 more examples

   All grimed with coaldust, they swing along the street with their dinner baskets and cans in their hands, chattering merrily.

   1862, Edwin Waugh, Home-Life of the Lancashire Factory Folk during the Cotton Famine

   Fog from the river rolled up the street and the windows were grimed by soot, but Cartwright had not turned on the electric light.

   1920, Harold Bindloss, Lister's Great Adventure

plural Grimes · alternative Grim · alternative Grimes · alternative Grims · alternative Gryme · alternative Grymes · alternative Gryms

1. A surname from Old Norse.