GROSSNESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does grossness mean? 

• GROSSNESS (noun)
  The noun GROSSNESS has 1 sense:

1. the quality of lacking taste and refinement

  Familiarity information: GROSSNESS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GROSSNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The quality of lacking taste and refinement

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

coarseness; commonness; grossness; raunch; vulgarism; vulgarity

Hypernyms ("grossness" is a kind of...):

inelegance (the quality of lacking refinement and good taste)

Derivation:

gross (conspicuously and tastelessly indecent)

 Context examples 

I passed over the grossness of his language, as he seemed half out of his mind with fear.

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

You will excuse my apparent grossness, Mary, in venturing to bring my own larder with me.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The country detective was a stout, puffy, red man, whose face was only redeemed from grossness by two extraordinarily bright eyes, almost hidden behind the heavy creases of cheek and brow.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was a soul-possession he dreamed, refined beyond any grossness, a free comradeship of spirit that he could not put into definite thought.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He was appalled by his own grossness, awed by her clear innocence, and he gazed again at her across the gulf.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)