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grime

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grime¹

  • /ɡɹaɪm/

Rhymes with -aɪm

Where it comes from

From Middle English grim (“dirt or soot covering the face”), from a specialized use of Old English grīma (“mask”), from Proto-West Germanic *grīmō, from Proto-Germanic *grīmô (“mask”).

Likely influenced by dialectal Dutch grijmsel (“grit, grime”), Dutch grijm (“soot, grime”), Middle Dutch gryme (“mask”), Middle Low German greme (“dirt”), compare Danish grime (“a halter”), Danish grimet (“soiled, stripy”), Norwegian Bokmål grimete (“soiled, stripy”), Norwegian Nynorsk grimete (“soiled, stripy”).

noun

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

verb grimes · griming · grimed

  1. transitive To begrime; to cake with dirt. All grimed with coaldust, they swing along the street with their dinner baskets and cans in their hands, chattering merrily.

Grime²

Where it comes from

From the Old Norse personal name Grímr.

proper noun Grimes · Grim · Grims · Gryme · Grymes

  1. A surname from Old Norse.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: filth, dirty, begrime, bemire, stain, grease, colly, dirt, soil, soiling, contamination, fouling, debris, garbage, dust, dirty grease

Translations

Every language

noun Dirt that is ingrained and difficult to remove

Españolmugre, roña, pringue, carca
中文污垢 wūgòu
Portuguêsencardimento
Françaiscrasse, saleté
DeutschSchmutz, Ruß
Italianoincrostazione, sporco ostinato
Русскийвъевшаяся грязь vʺjevšajasja

noun A type of music

Portuguêsgrime
Русскийграйм grajm

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Cite this
MLA

"grime." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/grime. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

grime. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/grime

Chicago

"grime." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/grime.

BibTeX
@misc{grime_2026,
  title = {grime},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/grime},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}