grossness

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English

Etymology

From gross +‎ -ness.

Pronunciation

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  • Audio (AU):(file)

Noun

grossness (countable and uncountable, plural grossnesses)

  1. Lack of refinement in character, behaviour etc.; coarseness.
    • 1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew:
      Now that he was doing so much else she could never have the grossness to apply for it to Sir Claude.
    • Samuel Johnson
      He […] began to descend to familiar questions, endeavouring to accommodate his discourse to the grossness of rustic understandings. The clowns soon found that he did not know wheat from rye, and began to despise him; one of the boys, by pretending to show him a bird's nest, decoyed him into a ditch; […]
  2. (slang) The quality of being repulsive or disgusting.
  3. (obsolete) Size.
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