grotty
grotty adjective: unpleasant, dirty, slovenly or offensive. Also the alternative form of groaty.
Adjective
grotty (comparative grottier, superlative grottiest)
- Unpleasant, dirty, slovenly or offensive.
- George: I wouldn't be seen dead in them. They're dead grotty.
Simon: Grotty?
George: Yeah, grotesque.1964, Alun Owen, A Hard Day's Night
- George: I wouldn't be seen dead in them. They're dead grotty.
Also used as
grotty is also the alternative form of groaty.
Synonyms of grotty
Forms of grotty
| comparative | grottier |
|---|---|
| superlative | grottiest |
| comparative | more grotty |
| superlative | most grotty |
Origin of grotty
Clipping of grotesque + -y. Piecewise doublet of grody, the American equivalent. Compare Middle English groti, grooti (“slimy, muddy”), from Old English grotiġ (“earthy, dirty”) (modern dialectal English groaty, Scots grotty), which is equivalent to groat + -y. Compare also Scottish Gaelic grod (“rotten, lousy, terrible”), Middle Irish grot (“bitter, sour”). Originated or popularised by the 1964 film A Hard Day's Night, starring the Beatles and written by Alun Owen.
See groaty.
Words formed from grotty
Words that rhyme with grotty
7 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about grotty
- What does grotty mean?
- Grotty means unpleasant, dirty, slovenly or offensive.
- What part of speech is grotty?
- Grotty is an adjective.
Words near grotty in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: grotty (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: EN-AU ck1 grotty.ogg.
Cite this entry: “grotty.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/grotty. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.