English
gross
see also: Gross
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /ɡɹəʊs/
  • (America) IPA: /ɡɹoʊs/
Adjective

gross (comparative grosser, superlative grossest)

  1. (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
    • circa 1595 William Shakespeare, Richard II (play), Act II, Scene 3,
      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, London: D. Brown et al., Act IV, Scene 1, p. 40,
      Your very faults, how gross soere, to me
      Have something pleasing in ’em.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Dublin: John Smith, Volume 3, Book 18, Chapter 10, p. 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, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 13,
      […] 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, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, Chapter 6,
      […] 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.
  2. (of an amount) Excluding any deductions; including all associated amounts.
    Synonyms: whole, entire, overall, total, aggregate
    Antonyms: net
    gross domestic product; gross income; gross weight
    • circa 1597 William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2, Act II, Scene 1,
      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, 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.
  3. (science, pathology) Seen without a microscope (usually for a tissue or an organ); at a large scale; not detailed.
    Synonyms: macroscopic
    Antonyms: microscopic
    gross anatomy
    • 1962, Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Chapter 12, p. 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.
  4. (slang, North America) Causing disgust.
    Synonyms: gro, grody, grotty, disgusting, nasty, revolting, yucky
    I threw up all over the bed. It was totally gross.
    • 1978, Armistead Maupin, Tales of the City, New York: Harper & Row, 1989, “Ties That Bind,” p. 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 (novel), 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!”
  5. Lacking refinement in behaviour or manner; offending a standard of morality.
    Synonyms: coarse, rude, vulgar, obscene, impure
    • 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: Dodsley et al., A Select Collection of Old English Plays
      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.
  6. (of a product) Lacking refinement; not of high quality.
    Synonyms: coarse, rough, unrefined
    Antonyms: fine
    • 1860, John Ruskin, Modern Painters, Volume 5, Part 6, Chapter 10, § 5,
      The flowers of Peter Paul Rubens are gross and rude […]
    • 1944, Emily Carr, The House of All Sorts, “Lorenzo Was Registered,”
      He scorned my wholesome kennel fare, toothing out dainties and leaving the grosser portions to be finished by the other dogs.
  7. (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, The Painted Veil, London: Heinemann, 1934, Chapter 79,
      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’, 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.
  8. (archaic) Not sensitive in perception or feeling.
    Synonyms: dull, witless
    • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Gospel of 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, John Milton, Comus (Milton), in Poems of Mr. John Milton, London: Humphrey Moseley, 1645, p. ,
      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.
  9. (now, chiefly, poetic) Difficult or impossible to see through.
    Synonyms: thick, heavy
    • 1594, Christopher Marlowe, Edward II (play), London: William Jones,
      Couragious Lancaster, imbrace thy king,
      And as grosse vapours perish by the sunne,
      Euen so let hatred with thy soueraigne smile,
    • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Book of 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 (poem), London: J. Johnson, Book 3, p. 116,
      A pestilent and most corrosive steam,
      Like a gross fog Boeotia, rising fast,
      And fast condensed upon the dewy sash,
      Asks egress;
    • 1870, James Russell Lowell, The Cathedral, Boston: Fields, Osgood, p. 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.
  10. (obsolete) Easy to perceive.
    Synonyms: obvious, clear
    • circa 1598 William Shakespeare, Henry V (play), Act II, Scene 2,
      […] though the truth of it stands off as gross
      As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • German: grob, unempfindlich
  • Russian: приту́пленный
Noun

gross (plural gross)

  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 Translations Verb

gross (grosses, present participle grossing; past and past participle grossed)

  1. (transitive) To earn money, not including expenses.
    The movie grossed three million on the first weekend.
Related terms
Gross
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /ɡɹəʊs/
  • (America) IPA: /ɡɹoʊs/
Proper noun
  1. Surname, originally a nickname for a big man, from Middle English gros ("large").
  2. A village in Nebraska, having a population of two as of 2010.


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