gross

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.

adj

1. (of behaviour considered to be wrong) Highly or conspicuously offensive.
   .
   a gross mistake; gross injustice; gross negligence; a gross insult
   Your very faults, how gross soere, to me Have something pleasing in ’em. 1682, Aphra Behn, “The City-Heiress”, in et al., London: D. Brown, act IV, scene 1, page 40
2. (of an amount) Excluding any deductions; including all associated amounts.
   gross domestic product; gross income; gross weight
   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. 1878, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native, Book 6, Chapter 1
   […] 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. 1937, George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier, Penguin, published 1962, Part 1, Chapter 3, p. 37
3. (sciences, pathology) Seen without a microscope (usually for a tissue or an organ); at a large scale; not detailed.
   gross anatomy
   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. 1962, Rachel Carson, chapter 12, in Silent Spring, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 190
4. (slang, Canada, US, Australia) Causing disgust.
   I threw up all over the bed. It was totally gross.
   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. 1978, Armistead Maupin, “Ties That Bind”, in Tales of the City, New York: Harper & Row, published 1989, page 293
   The next-door neighbor’s cat coughed up a hairball one day and the hair was not the cat’s. “That’s so gross!” 2002, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, New York: Picador, Book 3, p. 306
5. Lacking refinement in behaviour or manner; offending a standard of morality.
   Verjuice. She certainly has Talents. Lady Sneerwell. But her manner is gross. 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, act I, scene 1
   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. 1874, A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Dodsley et al.
6. (of a product) Lacking refinement; not of high quality.
   He scorned my wholesome kennel fare, toothing out dainties and leaving the grosser portions to be finished by the other dogs. 1944, Emily Carr, “Lorenzo Was Registered”, in The House of All Sorts
7. (of a person) 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. 1925, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter 79, in The Painted Veil, London: Heinemann, published 1934
   He collected a number of injuries that stopped him jousting, and then in middle age became stout, eventually gross. 2013, Hilary Mantel, “Royal Bodies”, in London Review of Books, 35.IV
8. (now chiefly poetic) Difficult or impossible to see through.
   A pestilent and most corrosive steam, Like a gross fog Boeotian, rising fast, And fast condensed upon the dewy sash, Asks egress; 1785, William Cowper, The Task, London: J. Johnson, Book 3, p. 116
   […] 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. 1870, James Russell Lowell, The Cathedral, Boston: Fields, Osgood, page 34
9. (archaic) Not sensitive in perception or feeling.
10. (obsolete) Easy to perceive.

noun

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.

verb

1. (transitive) To earn money, not including expenses.
   The movie grossed three million on the first weekend.
   The film grossed $464 million worldwide, ensconcing her in the Hollywood A-list. 21 January 2014, 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)