Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Exclusive of deductions; total: synonym: whole.
  • adjective Unmitigated in any way; utter.
  • adjective So obvious or conspicuous as to cause or heighten offense: synonym: flagrant.
  • adjective Brutishly coarse, as in behavior; crude.
  • adjective Disgusting or offensive.
  • adjective Overweight; corpulent.
  • adjective On a large scale; not fine or detailed.
  • adjective Broad; general.
  • noun The entire body or amount, as of income, before necessary deductions have been made.
  • noun A group of 144 items; 12 dozen.
  • transitive verb To earn as a total income or profit before deductions.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Relatively large; specifically, visible to the naked eye; megascopic; not microscopic.
  • To engross.
  • After large game: as, to fly gross: said of a hawk.
  • Great; large; big; bulky.
  • Unusually large or plump, as from coarse growth or fatness: applied to plants or animals, and implying in men excessive or repulsive fatness.
  • Coarse in texture or form; coarse in taste, or as related to any of the senses; not fine or delicate.
  • Coarse in a moral sense; vulgar; indelicate; broad: applied to either persons or things.
  • Remarkably glaring or reprehensible; enormous; shameful; flagrant: as, a gross mistake; gross injustice.
  • Thick; dense; not attenuated; not refined or pure: as, a gross medium; gross air; gross elements.
  • Not acute or sensitive in perception, apprehension, or feeling; stupid; dull.
  • Whole; entire; total; specifically, without deduction, as for charges or waste material; without allowance of tare and tret: opposed to net: as, the gross sum or amount; gross profits, income, or weight.
  • General; not entering into detail.
  • noun The main body; the chief part; the bulk; the mass: now chiefly or only in the phrase in gross or in the gross (which see, below).
  • noun A unit of tale, consisting of twelve dozen, or 144. It never has the plural form: as, five gross or ten gross.
  • noun Thick soft food, such as porridge, etc. Halliwell.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The main body; the chief part, bulk, or mass.
  • noun The number of twelve dozen; twelve times twelve
  • noun (Law) an advowson belonging to a person, and not to a manor.
  • noun twelve gross; one hundred and forty-four dozen.
  • noun by the quantity; at wholesale.
  • noun (Law) See under Common, n.
  • noun in the bulk, or the undivided whole; all parts taken together.
  • adjective Great; large; bulky; fat; of huge size; excessively large.
  • adjective Coarse; rough; not fine or delicate.
  • adjective Not easily aroused or excited; not sensitive in perception or feeling; dull; witless.
  • adjective Expressing, or originating in, animal or sensual appetites; hence, coarse, vulgar, low, obscene, or impure.
  • adjective Disgusting; repulsive; highly offensive.
  • adjective Thick; dense; not attenuated.
  • adjective Great; palpable; serious; vagrant; shameful
  • adjective Whole; entire; total; without deduction; ; -- opposed to net.
  • adjective (Law) the loan of money upon bottomry, i. e., on a mortgage of a ship.
  • adjective (Law) that kind of average which falls upon the gross or entire amount of ship, cargo, and freight; -- commonly called general average.
  • adjective the total of the receipts, before they are diminished by any deduction, as for expenses; -- distinguished from net profits.
  • adjective the total weight of merchandise or goods, without deduction for tare, tret, or waste; -- distinguished from neat weight, or net weight.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, large, from Old French gros, from Late Latin grossus, thick. N., sense 2, Middle English grosse, from Old French grosse (douzain), large (dozen), feminine of gros.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English gross ("whole, entire", also "flagrant, monstrous"), from Old French gros ("big, thick, large, stour"), from Late Latin grossus ("thick in diameter, coarse"), and Medieval Latin grossus ("great, big"), from Old High German grōz ("big, thick, coarse"), from Proto-Germanic *grautaz (“large, great, thick, coarse grained, unrefined”), from Proto-Indo-European *ghrewə- (“to fell, put down, fall in”). Cognate with French dialectal grôt, groût (Berry, "large"), and grô (Burgundy, "large"), Dutch groot ("big, large"), German groß ("large"), English great. More at great.

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Examples

  • In addition, from time to time on this call we refer to the term gross sales.

    unknown title 2011

  • Human Rights Watch says the African Union mediation should work to end what it calls "gross violations of human rights" by security forces that it says are targeting Ouattara supporters.

    Fighting Continues in Ivorian Commercial Capital as Civilians Flee 2011

  • Instead of measuring social health by the standard economic yardstick, gross domestic product, Bhutan tracks what it calls gross national happiness, which is defined as sustainable development, cultural preservation, environmental well-being and good governance.

    Semi-Roughing It Michael J. Ybarra 2011

  • Human Rights Watch HRW says African Union mediators in Ivory Coast should work to end what it calls "gross violations of human rights" by security forces loyal to incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo, as violence continues to escalate in the country's commercial capital and troubled western region.

    HRW: Gbagbo Security Forces Committing Gross Rights Violations in Ivory Coast 2011

  • He says this case highlights what he calls a gross inequity in how the church treats scandal.

    Nun Excommunicated For Allowing Abortion 2010

  • There's a big difference between "total transactions" in the economy (what I call gross domestic expenditures, or GDE) and final transactions, or GDP.

    P Is to Q as GDP to GDE 2008

  • She is in the country to highlight what she calls gross human rights violations in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2006

  • My Imperialist friends were for the most part horribly shocked at what they called my gross and unjust personal prejudices against a great man.

    The Adventure of Living Strachey, John St Loe 1922

  • My Imperialist friends were for the most part horribly shocked at what they called my gross and unjust personal prejudices against a great man.

    The Adventure of Living : a Subjective Autobiography John St. Loe Strachey 1893

  • He moved that the rule _nisi_ should be discharged; put in a copy of the Christmas Number of the _Freethinker_, which he described as a gross and intentional outrage on the religious feelings of the public; alleged, as was perfectly true, that it was still being sold; and urged that the case was one that should be sent for trial at once.

    Prisoner for Blasphemy 1882

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