grout

Etymology

From Middle English growte, grut, from Old English grūt (“dregs; coarse meal”), from Proto-Germanic *grūtą (compare Dutch gruit (“dregs”), German Grauß, Norwegian grut (“ground”)), lengthening of Proto-Germanic *grutą, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer- (“to grind, rub”). Related to grit.

noun

1. A thin mortar used to fill the gaps between tiles and cavities in masonry.
2. (archaic) Coarse meal; groats.
3. (archaic, chiefly in the plural) Dregs, sediment.
4. (UK, obsolete) A kind of beer or ale.

verb

1. To insert mortar between tiles.
   I spent the whole afternoon grouting the kitchen floor.
   Stitching and grouting fractures in masonry, insertion of date marker tabs for monitoring. May 20 2020, Philip Haigh, “Ribblehead: at the heart of the S&C's survival and its revival: Ribblehead Viaduct repairs”, in Rail, page 27
2. To affix with mortar.
   The year before the pandemic, a sump tank attached to a waste pond sprang a leak and had to be grouted shut. December 15 2022, Samanth Subramanian, “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site”, in The Guardian