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Webster 1913 Edition


Gross

Gross

,
Adj.
[
Com
par.
Grosser
;
sup
erl.
Grossest
.]
[F.
gros
, L.
grossus
, perh. fr. L.
crassus
thick, dense, fat, E.
crass
, cf. Skr.
grathita
tied together, wound up, hardened. Cf.
Engross
,
Grocer
,
Grogram
.]
1.
Great; large; bulky; fat; of huge size; excessively large.
“A gross fat man.”
Shak.
A
gross
body of horse under the Duke.
Milton.
2.
Coarse; rough; not fine or delicate.
3.
Not easily aroused or excited; not sensitive in perception or feeling; dull; witless.
Tell her of things that no
gross
ear can hear.
Milton.
4.
Expressing, or originating in, animal or sensual appetites; hence, coarse, vulgar, low, obscene, or impure.
The terms which are delicate in one age become
gross
in the next.
Macaulay.
6.
Thick; dense; not attenuated;
as, a
gross
medium
.
7.
Great; palpable; serious; vagrant; shameful;
as, a
gross
mistake;
gross
injustice;
gross
negligence.
8.
Whole; entire; total; without deduction;
as, the
gross
sum, or
gross
amount, the
gross
weight
; – opposed to
net.
Gross adventure
(Law)
the loan of money upon bottomry, i. e., on a mortgage of a ship.
Gross average
(Law)
,
that kind of average which falls upon the gross or entire amount of ship, cargo, and freight; – commonly called
general average
.
Bouvier.
Burrill.
Gross receipts
,
the total of the receipts, before they are diminished by any deduction, as for expenses; – distinguished from net profits.
Abbott.
Gross weight
the total weight of merchandise or goods, without deduction for tare, tret, or waste; – distinguished from
neat weight
, or
net weight
.

Gross

,
Noun.
[F.
gros
(in sense 1),
grosse
(in sense 2). See
Gross
,
Adj.
]
1.
The main body; the chief part, bulk, or mass.
“The gross of the enemy.”
Addison.
For the
gross
of the people, they are considered as a mere herd of cattle.
Burke.
2.
s
ing.
&
pl.
The number of twelve dozen; twelve times twelve;
as, a
gross
of bottles; ten
gross
of pens.
Advowson in gross
(Law)
,
an advowson belonging to a person, and not to a manor.
A great gross
,
twelve gross; one hundred and forty-four dozen.
By the gross
,
by the quantity; at wholesale.
Common in gross
.
(Law)
See under
Common
,
Noun.
In the gross
,
In gross
,
in the bulk, or the undivided whole; all parts taken together.

Webster 1828 Edition


Gross

GROSS

,
Adj.
[L. crassus.]
1.
Thick; bulky; particularly applied to animals; fat; corpulent; as a gross man; a gross body.
2.
Coarse; rude; rough; not delicate; as gross sculpture.
3.
Coarse, in a figurative sense; rough; mean; particularly, vulgar; obscene; indelicate; as gross language; gross jests.
4.
Thick; large; opposed to fine; as wood or stone of a gross grain.
5.
Impure; unrefined; as gross sensuality.
6.
Great; palpable; as a gross mistake; gross injustice.
7.
Coarse; large; not delicate; as gross features.
8.
Thick; dense; not attenuated; not refined or pure; as a gross medium of sight; gross air; gross elements.
9.
Unseemly; enormous; shameful; great; as gross corruptions; gross vices.
10. Stupid; dull.
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear.
11. Whole; entire; as the gross sum, or gross amount, as opposed to a sum consisting of separate or specified parts.

GROSS

,
Noun.
The main body; the chief part; the bulk; the mass; as the gross of the people. [We now use bulk.]
1.
The number of twelve dozen; twelve times twelve; as a gross of bottles. It never has the plural form. We say, five gross or ten gross.
In the gross, in gross, in the bulk, or the whole undivided; all parts taken together.
By the gross, in a like sense.
Gross weight, is the weight of merchandize or goods, with the dust and dross, the bag, cask, chest, &c., in which they are contained, for which an allowance is to be made of tare and tret. This being deducted, the remainder or real weight is denominated neat or net weight. Gross weight has lately been abolished in Connecticut by statute, May, 1827.
In English law, a villain in gross, was one who did not belong to the land, but immediately to the person of the lord, and was transferrable by deed, like chattels, from one owner to another.
Advowson in gross, an advowson separated from the property of a manor,and annexed to the person of its owner.
Common in gross, is common annexed to a man's person, and not appurtenant to land.

Definition 2024


Gross

Gross

See also: gross, groß, and Groß

English

Proper noun

Gross

  1. A 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.

See also


German

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɡroːs/

Noun

Gross n (plural: Grosse or Gross)

  1. Alternative spelling of Gros

Proper noun

Gross

  1. A surname.

gross

gross

See also: Gross, groß, and Groß

English

Adjective

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

  1. (slang) Disgusting, nasty.
  2. Coarse, rude, vulgar, obscene, or 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.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 12, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      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 connexionor rather as a transition from the subject that started their conversationsuch talk had been distressingly out of place.
  3. Coarse, unrefined.
    • 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.
  4. Great, large, bulky, or fat.
    • 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.
  5. Great, serious, flagrant, or shameful.
    a gross mistake;  gross injustice;  gross negligence
  6. The whole amount; entire; total before any deductions.
    • 2013 August 3, Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
      Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.
    gross domestic product
  7. Not sensitive in perception or feeling; dull; witless.
    • Milton
      Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear.
  8. (pathology) seen without a microscope, macroscopic, usually for a tissue or an organ.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

gross (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. 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 **** 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 **** 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.

Related terms

Derived terms


German

Adjective

gross (comparative grösser, superlative am grössten)

  1. Switzerland and Liechtenstein standard spelling of groß (in the past, this form was also found in other regions).
    • Bach, Cantata BWV 71: Gott ist mein König
      Glück, Heil und grosser Sieg
      Good fortune, salvation and great victory

Declension


Swedish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɡrɔs/

Noun

gross n

  1. a gross, twelve dozen (144)

Declension

Inflection of gross 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative gross grosset gross grossen
Genitive gross grossets gross grossens

Related terms

  • grosshandlare

See also