Word.ws English Dictionary

gross out

gross out noun: something which sickens, causes distress, or appalls by reason of being disgusting, gory, or repulsive.

Noun

gross out (plural gross outs)

  1. (Canada, US, informal) Something which sickens, causes distress, or appalls by reason of being disgusting, gory, or repulsive.
    • Notwithstanding that episode, this film is refreshingly low on scatological gags and other gross-out humor, preferring all-purpose bad jokes to bathroom ones.1993 May 21, Janet Maslin, “From 'Rambo' to Rodham, Smirking All the Way]" (film review of Hot Shots! Part Deux)”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 25 Sep 2020, retrieved 22 Apr...
    • For Marlon Wayans — who returns as writer, star and sparkplug of “A Haunted House 2,” another ramshackle assortment of sight gags, scares, laughs and gross-outs — there is no bottom.[…] Malcolm seeks help via the Internet but not before he has elaborately explicit “sex” with Abigail, easily among...2014 April 19, Stephen Schaefer, “Wayans’ ‘Haunted’ sequel fails to scare up laughs”, in Boston Herald, archived from the original on 08 Oct 2020, retrieved 22 Apr 2014

Verb

gross out (third-person singular simple present grosses out, present participle grossing out, simple past and past participle grossed out)

  1. (Canada, US, informal, transitive) To sicken or distress (someone) by being disgusting, gory, or lewd.
    • Lisa likes him clean-shaven. "You know, when there's things crawling out of your beard or whenever you've got food left from lunch or dinner, I don't know, that just kind of grosses me out," she says.2013 August 22, Ann Oldenburg, “Beardless 'Duck Dynasty' brother reveals wild past”, in USA Today, archived from the original on 08 Jan 2021, retrieved 22 Apr 2014
    • The Stick of Truth is a game where you can choose to use a toilet and then, later, fling the result at your enemies to weaken them by grossing them out.2014 March 4, Chris Suellentrop, “Trey Parker and Matt Stone Make a ‘South Park’ Game”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 08 Jan 2021, retrieved 22 Apr 2014

Forms of gross out

Noun
pluralgross outs
Verb
third-person singular presentgrosses out
present participlegrossing out
past participlegrossed out
pastgrossed out

Questions about gross out

What does gross out mean?
Gross out means something which sickens, causes distress, or appalls by reason of being disgusting, gory, or repulsive.
What part of speech is gross out?
Gross out can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of gross out?
The plural of gross out is gross outs.

Words near gross out in the dictionary

  1. gross national happiness
  2. gross national income
  3. gross national product
  4. gross national products
  5. gross negligence
  6. gross out
  7. gross outs
  8. gross pay
  9. gross profit
  10. gross profits
  11. gross receipts tax

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gross out (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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