gross

English

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gross

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle English gross (“whole, entire; flagrant, monstrous”), from Old French gros (“big, thick, large, stout”), from Late Latin grossus (“thick in diameter, coarse”), and Medieval Latin grossus (“great, big”), influenced by Old High German grōz (“big, thick, coarse”), from Proto-Germanic *grautaz (“large, great, thick, coarse grained, unrefined”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer- (“to rub, to stroke, to grind”).

Cognate with French grossier (“gross”). See also French dialectal grôt, groût (“large”) (Berry) and grô (“large”) (Burgundy), Catalan gros (“big”), Dutch groot (“big, large”), German groß (“large”), English great. More at great.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɡɹəʊs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɡɹoʊs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (Philippine, nonstandard) IPA^(key): /ɡɹɔs/
• (Scotland, dialectal) IPA^(key): /ɡɹos/
• Homophone: Gross
• Rhymes: -əʊs, (Philippines, Scotland) -ɒs

Adjective

gross (comparative grosser or more gross, superlative grossest or most gross)

2. (of behaviour considered to be wrong) Highly or conspicuously offensive.

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

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

   • 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     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:

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

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

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 10, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A Millar, , →OCLC, book 18, page 336:

     […] 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;

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

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

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

     […] he 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.

4. (of an amount) Excluding any deductions; including all associated amounts.

   Synonyms: whole, entire, overall, total, aggregate

   Antonym: net

   gross domestic product; gross income; gross weight

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

     What is the gross sum that I owe thee?

   • 1878, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native‎, Book 6, Chapter 1:

     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.

   • 1937, George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier‎, Penguin, published 1962, Part 1, Chapter 3, p. 37:

     […] 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.

6. (sciences, pathology) Seen without a microscope (usually for a tissue or an organ); at a large scale; not detailed.

   Synonym: macroscopic

   Antonym: microscopic

   gross anatomy

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

     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.

8. (informal, Canada, US, Australia) Causing disgust.

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

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

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

     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.

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

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

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

    Synonyms: coarse, rude, vulgar, obscene, impure

    • 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:

      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!

    • 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal‎, act I, scene 1:

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

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

      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.

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

      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.

11. (of a product) Lacking refinement; not of high quality.

    Synonyms: coarse, rough, unrefined

    Antonym: fine

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

      The flowers of Rubens are gross and rude […]

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

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

12. (of a substance) Dense, heavy.
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, Canto XL, page 62:

      ⁠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.

13. (of a person) Heavy in proportion to one's height; having a lot of excess flesh.

    Synonyms: great, large, bulky, fat, obese

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

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

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

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

14. (now chiefly poetic) Difficult or impossible to see through.

    Synonyms: thick, heavy

    • 1594 (first publication), Christopher Marlow[e], The Trovblesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edvvard the Second, King of England: , London: for Henry Bell, , published 1622, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

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

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

      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.

    • 1785, William Cowper, The Task‎, London: J. Johnson, Book 3, p. 116:

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

    • 1870, James Russell Lowell, The Cathedral‎, Boston: Fields, Osgood, page 34:

      […] 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.

15. (archaic) Not sensitive in perception or feeling.

    Synonyms: dull, witless

    • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: 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:

      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.

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

      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.

    • 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: , 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:

      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.

      read online

16. (obsolete) Easy to perceive.

    Synonyms: obvious, clear

    • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

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

Synonyms

• (heavy in proportion to one's height): See also Thesaurus:obese

Derived terms

• grossen
• grossish
• grossly

Translations

Noun

gross (countable and uncountable, plural gross or grosses)

1. Twelve dozen = 144.
2. The total nominal earnings or amount, before taxes, expenses, exceptions or similar are deducted. That which remains after all deductions is called net.
3. The bulk, the mass, the masses.

Translations

Verb

gross (third-person singular simple present grosses, present participle grossing, simple past and past participle grossed)

1. (transitive) To earn money, not including expenses.

   The movie grossed three million on the first weekend.

   • 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)‎:

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

Derived terms

Related terms

• engross
• grocer, grocery, groceries

Anagrams

• Sgros, Sorgs

German

Adjective

gross (strong nominative masculine singular grosser, comparative grösser, superlative am grössten)

1. Switzerland and Liechtenstein standard spelling of groß

Declension

Lombard

Etymology

From Late Latin grossus.

Adjective

gross

1. big, fat, large, thick

Pennsylvania German

Etymology

From Middle High German grōz, from Old High German grōz, from Proto-West Germanic *graut, from Proto-Germanic *grautaz.

Compare German groß, Dutch groot, English great.

Adjective

gross (comparative greesser, superlative greescht)

1. big, large

Derived terms

• Grossdaadi
• Grossmammi

Swedish

Etymology

From French grosse (douzaine), "large (dozen)".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡrɔs/

Noun

gross n

1. a gross, twelve dozen (144)

Declension

Related terms

• grosshandlare

See also

• dussin
• tjog

Anagrams

• sorgs