GRIMY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does grimy mean? 

• GRIMY (adjective)
  The adjective GRIMY has 1 sense:

1. thickly covered with ingrained dirt or soot

  Familiarity information: GRIMY used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GRIMY (adjective)

Comparative: grimier   
Superlative: grimiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Thickly covered with ingrained dirt or soot

Synonyms:

begrimed; dingy; grimy; grubby; grungy; raunchy

Context example:

a grungy kitchen

Similar:

dirty; soiled; unclean (soiled or likely to soil with dirt or grime)

Derivation:

grime (the state of being covered with unclean things)

griminess (the state of being grimy)

 Context examples 

In the far corner was a smithy, where a grimy lad was at work.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My three friends had all lost their hats, and had now bound handkerchiefs round their heads, their clothes hung in ribbons about them, and their unshaven grimy faces were hardly to be recognized.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In the eyes of the world, I was doubtless covered with grimy dishonour; but I resolved to be clean in my own sight—and to the last I repudiated the contamination of her crimes, and wrenched myself from connection with her mental defects.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She looked up at the lowering sky, down at the crimson bow already flecked with black, forward along the muddy street, then one long, lingering look behind, at a certain grimy warehouse, with 'Hoffmann, Swartz, & Co.' over the door, and said to herself, with a sternly reproachful air...

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)