Gross (?), 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.
© Webster 1913.
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 1913. | 
