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Gross

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gross¹

  • /ɡɹəʊs/ UK
  • /ɡɹoʊs/ US
  • /ɡɹɔs/ Philippines, nonstandard
  • /ɡɹos/ Scotland, dialectal

Sounds like Gross · Rhymes with -əʊs

Where it comes from

From Middle English gros (“large, thick, full-bodied; coarse, unrefined, simple”), from Old French gros, from Latin grossus (“big, fat, thick”, in Late Latin also “coarse, rough”), of uncertain further origin but perhaps related to Proto-Celtic *brassos (“great, violent”).

adjective grosser · more gross · grossest · 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
  2. Excluding any deductions; including all associated amounts. gross domestic product; gross income; gross weight
  3. Seen without a microscope (usually for a tissue or an organ); at a large scale; not detailed. gross anatomy
  4. Australia, Canada, US, informal Causing disgust. I threw up all over the bed. It was totally gross.
  5. Lacking refinement in behaviour or manner; offending a standard of morality. 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!
  6. Lacking refinement; not of high quality. The flowers of Rubens are gross and rude […]
  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.
  8. Heavy in proportion to one's height; having a lot of excess flesh. Kitty noticed that her sister’s pregnancy had blunted her features and in her black dress she looked gross and blousy.
  9. poetic Difficult 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,
  10. archaic Not 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.
  11. obsolete Easy to perceive. […] though the truth of it stands off as gross / As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it.

noun gross · grosses

  1. countable, uncountable Twelve dozen = 144. We need to order three gross of torx screws for next week.
  2. countable, uncountable The total amount (of goods, money, etc) before taxes, expenses, exceptions, tares, or similar deductions are subtracted.
  3. countable, uncountable The bulk; the mass.

verb grosses · grossing · grossed

  1. transitive To earn money, not including expenses. The movie grossed three million on the first weekend.

Gross²

  • /ɡɹəʊs/ UK
  • /ɡɹoʊs/ US
  • /ɡɹɔs/ Philippines, nonstandard
  • /ɡɹos/ Scotland, dialectal

Sounds like gross · Rhymes with -əʊs, (Philippines, Scotland) -ɒs

Where it comes from

* As a Jewish and German surname, from groß (“great, large”). The Jewish surname was influenced by Hebrew גדול (“big, large”), hence the Hebraicization Gadol.

* As an English surname, from the noun and adjective gross, a doublet of above.

The village is named after Ben Gross, who kept a general store there.

proper noun

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

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