Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Gross

Gross (gros), a. [Compar. Grosser; superl. Grossest.] [F. gros, L. grossus, perh. fr. L. crassus thick, dense, fat, E. crass, cf. Skr. grathita tied together, wound up, hardened. Cf. Engross, Grocer, Grogram.] 1. Great; large; bulky; fat; of huge size; excessively large. "A gross fat man." Shak.

A gross body of horse under the Duke. Milton.

2. Coarse; rough; not fine or delicate.

3. Not easily aroused or excited; not sensitive in perception or feeling; dull; witless.

Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear. Milton.

4. Expressing, or originating in, animal or sensual appetites; hence, coarse, vulgar, low, obscene, or impure.

The terms which are delicate in one age become gross in the next. Macaulay.

5. Thick; dense; not attenuated; as, a gross medium.

6. Great; palpable; serious; vagrant; shameful; as, a gross mistake; gross injustice; gross negligence.

7. Whole; entire; total; without deduction; as, the gross sum, or gross amount, the gross weight; — opposed to net.

Gross adventure (Law) the loan of money upon bottomry, i. e., on a mortgage of a ship. — Gross average (Law), that kind of average which falls upon the gross or entire amount of ship, cargo, and freight; — commonly called general average. Bouvier. Burrill. — Gross receipts, the total of the receipts, before they are diminished by any deduction, as for expenses; — distinguished from net profits. Abbott. — Gross weight the total weight of merchandise or goods, without deduction for tare, tret, or waste; — distinguished from neat, or net, weight.

Gross, n. [F. gros (in sense 1), grosse (in sense 2). See Gross, a.] 1. The main body; the chief part, bulk, or mass. "The gross of the enemy." Addison.

For the gross of the people, they are considered as a mere herd of cattle. Burke.

2. sing. & pl. The number of twelve dozen; twelve times twelve; as, a gross of bottles; ten gross of pens.

Advowson in gross (Law), an advowson belonging to a person, and not to a manor. — A great gross, twelve gross; one hundred and forty-four dozen. — By the gross, by the quantity; at wholesale. — Common in gross. (Law) See under Common, n. — In the gross, In gross, in the bulk, or the undivided whole; all parts taken together.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.