Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use gross in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun, verb

Gross means remarkably great, big, vast in an often unpleasant way; (of behaviour) Highly or conspicuously offensive. Example: “I threw up all over the bed. It was totally gross.”

Examples of gross by meaning

adjectiveRemarkably great, big, vast in an often unpleasant way; (of behaviour) Highly or conspicuously offensive.

  • a gross mistake; gross injustice; gross negligence; a gross insult

adjectiveExcluding any deductions; including all associated amounts.

  • gross domestic product; gross income; gross weight
  • But please notice that even these wretched earnings are gross earnings.1937 March 8, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter III, in The Road to Wigan Pier, London: Victor Gollancz, published May...

adjectiveSeen without a microscope (usually for a tissue or an organ); at a large scale; not detailed.

  • We are accustomed to look for the gross and immediate effect and to ignore all else.1962, Rachel Carson, chapter 12, in Silent Spring, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 190

adjectiveCausing disgust.

  • I threw up all over the bed. It was totally gross.
  • The hint might not be terribly subtle, she decided, but somebody had to do something about that gross, gravy-stained clip-on number.1978, Armistead Maupin, “Ties That Bind”, in Tales of the City, New York: Harper & Row, published 1989, page 293
  • “That’s so gross!”2002, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, New York: Picador, Book 3, p. 306

adjectiveLacking refinement in behaviour or manner; offending a standard of morality.

  • It was ugly, gross.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

adjectiveLacking refinement; not of high quality.

  • He scorned my wholesome kennel fare, toothing out dainties and leaving the grosser portions to be finished by the other dogs.1944, Emily Carr, “Lorenzo Was Registered”, in The House of All Sorts

adjectiveHeavy in proportion to one's height; having a lot of excess flesh.

  • Kitty noticed that her sister’s pregnancy had blunted her features and in her black dress she looked gross and blousy.1925, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter 79, in The Painted Veil, London: Heinemann, published 1934
  • He collected a number of injuries that stopped him jousting, and then in middle age became stout, eventually gross.2013, Hilary Mantel, “Royal Bodies”, in London Review of Books, 35.IV

nounTwelve dozen = 144.

  • We need to order three gross of torx screws for next week.

More sentences with gross

  • I suppose you can put it down to gross stupidity, but that's not much of an excuse.From the entry stupidity
  • Their take-home pay was half their gross, but fifteen percent was for retirement.From the entry take-home pay
  • Yes, he grosses more than I do, but my take-home is comparable because of tax differences.From the entry take-home
  • Silence in the face of gross injustice, or support for it, or even active involvement therein, comes at a price.From the entry injustice
  • They hit him with DUI and gross negligence.From the entry dui
  • The student was banned from using the university's computing resources for two weeks due to gross misconduct on the Internet.From the entry misconduct
  • The old joke about gross anatomy is that it is not only gross (macroscopic) but also often gross (revolting).From the entry gross anatomy
  • His response amounted to gross insubordination.From the entry amount
  • The value of the firm's stock fell precipitously when word leaked out that officers of the company were under investigation for gross mismanagement.From the entry mismanagement
  • Whether you call them garden shed inventors or backyard innovators, they've made big contributions to gross national income on both sides of the Atlantic.From the entry garden shed
  • Once you factor in rent, staff, and inventory, the cost of doing business around here eats up nearly half of gross revenue.From the entry cost of doing business
  • An independent forensic accountant found evidence of gross financial mismanagement while Hegseth was administering two small nonprofits.2025 January 24, George F. Will, “There are ample reasons, not about his personal life, for rejecting Hegseth. Opinion”, in Washington Post. From the entry facially
  • Winking's gross.” “Not when I pair it with my signature smirk.” “Worse.”2024 October 31, Stephanie Amante-Ritter, “The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel” (1:29 from the start), in Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 5…. From the entry sidequest
  • Then, I could simply grab the gross ball with that and rethrow it.2023, Madelyn Scott, Homicide and Hearts: Valentine's Day. From the entry rethrow
  • “So, Eliza, got any boyfriends?” I say, acting like they are ewwy, yucky, gross.2022, Susie Wright, Sydney’s Passion, Fulton Books, →ISBN. From the entry ewwy
  • Because it sounds like you're insinuating that I'm trying to baby trap you, which is just gross.2022, Iris Morland, Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Plus-One. From the entry baby trap
  • So I put on my Speedo (boxer-short style, not “Ew, gross” style) and went downstairs.2017, Todd Barry, Thank You for Coming to Hattiesburg: One Comedian’s Tour of Not-Quite-the-Biggest Cities in the World, Gallery Books…. From the entry boxer-short
  • Rupioid, elephantine, and ostraceous psoriasis are special forms of plaque psoriasis characterized by gross hyperkeratosis.2016, Jayakar Thomas, Textbook of Psoriasis, →ISBN, page 46. From the entry ostraceous
  • Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too.2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847, archived from the original on 25 Oct 2020. From the entry GDP
  • Perhaps it is fitting that economists' most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too.2013 August 3, “Boundary problems: America has changed the way it measures GDP”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847, London: The…. From the entry economics
  • Her brother’s obsession with guns and gross little expeditions appall her.2013, Carter Dreyfuss, chapter 1, in The Prince of Temple Square: A Murder Mystery, Tucson, Ariz.: Wheatmark, →ISBN, pages 8–9. From the entry wan
  • But he managed to catch the side of her head, ripping out Dak’s gross, earwaxy translation device.2013, James Dashner, “The Kick that Ended a Friendship”, in A Mutiny in Time (Infinity Ring; 1), New York, N.Y.: Scholastic Inc., →ISBN. From the entry earwaxy
  • “You're so gross,” she said, douche chills running up her arms and legs.2012, Tonya Hurley, The Blessed, page 48. From the entry douche chills
  • Stemming the rose by any other name would still gross me out.2009 April 29, Edward M. Kennedy, “I donut understand the excitement over Specter”, in rec.sport.football.college (Usenet). From the entry stem the rose
  • To say that Shawn was not popular in the locker room would be a gross misunderstatement.2009, Aaron Feigenbaum, The Unauthorized History of DX. From the entry misunderstatement
  • But, beyond gross morphologic observations this is purely speculative and not tested by studies in cobblestoned monolayers.2005, Carolyn E Patterson, Perspectives on lung endothelial barrier function. From the entry cobblestoned
  • His first movies were so gross, most people consider them unwatchable.2003, Seth Godin, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. From the entry unwatchable
  • Hanna comments, “That was groaty” (gross), and Natalie reminds Ellen that she is going with Craig.2002, Professor of Sociology and Chair Jaber F Gubrium, Professor James A Holstein, Handbook of Interview Research: Context and Method…. From the entry groaty

Meaning of gross

  1. adjective Remarkably great, big, vast in an often unpleasant way; (of behaviour) Highly or conspicuously offensive.
  2. adjective Excluding any deductions; including all associated amounts.
  3. adjective Seen without a microscope (usually for a tissue or an organ); at a large scale; not detailed.

Full definition of gross

Questions about gross in a sentence

How do you use gross in a sentence?
Gross is used as an adjective, noun and verb. For example: “I threw up all over the bed. It was totally gross.”
What is a short sentence with gross?
““That’s so gross!””
What does gross mean?
Gross means remarkably great, big, vast in an often unpleasant way; (of behaviour) Highly or conspicuously offensive.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gross (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use gross in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/gross. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.