Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GROOM, n. [Pers. خَرْمَا garma, a keeper of horses. Qu. Flemish or old D. grom, a boy.]

1. A boy or young man; a waiter; a servant.
2. A man or boy who has the charge of horses; one who takes care of horses or the stable.
3. In England, an officer of the king's household; as, the groom of the chamber; groom of the stole or wardrobe.
4. Groom for goom, in bridegroom, is a palpable mistake. Groom of the state, in England, the first lord of the bed-chamber.

GROOM, v.t.

To take care of horses.

GROOVE, n. [groov; Ice. groof; Sw. grop; but it is merely a variation of grave. See Grave and Grip.]

1. A furrow, channel, or long hollow cut by a tool. Among joiners, a channel in the edge of a molding, style or rail.
2. Among miners, a shaft or pit sunk into the earth.

GROOVE, v.t. [Sw. gröpa.]

To cut a channel with an edged tool; to furrow.

GROOV'ED, pp.

Channeled; cut with grooves.

GROOV'ER, n.

A miner. [Local.]

GROOV'ING, ppr.

Cutting in channels.

GROPE, v.i. [Sax. gropian, grapian; G. grabbeln, greifen; D. grypen, grabbelen; Dan. griber, to gripe, to grope; Sw. grubla, Dan. grubler, to search. The sense is to feel or to catch with the hand.]

1. To feel along; to search or attempt to find in the dark, or as a blind person, by feeling. We grope for the wall like the blind. Is. lix. The dying believer leaves the weeping children of mortality to grope a little longer among the miseries and sensualities of a worldly life. Buckminster.
2. To seek blindly in intellectual darkness, without a certain guide or means of knowledge.

GROPE, v.t.

To search by feeling in the dark. We groped our way at midnight. But Strephon, cautious, never meant / The bottom of the pan to grope. Swift.

GROP-ED, pp.

Felt in the dark.

GROP-ER, n.

One who gropes; one who feels his way in the dark, or searches by feeling.

GROP-ING, ppr.

Feeling for something in darkness; searching by feeling.

GRO'PING-LY, adv.

In a groping manner.

GROSS, a. [Fr. gros; It. and Port. grosso; Sp. grueso, grosero; L. crassus; a dialectical variation of great.]

1. Thick; bulky; particularly applied to animals; fat; corpulent; as, a gross man; a gross body.
2. Coarse; rude; rough; not delicate; as, gross sculpture. Wotton.
3. Coarse, in a figurative sense; rough; mean; particularly, vulgar; obscene; indelicate; as, gross language; gross jests. Thick; large; opposed to fine; as, wood or stone of a gross grain.
4. Impure; unrefined; as, gross sensuality.
5. Great; palpable; as, a gross mistake; gross injustice.
6. Coarse; large; not delicate; as, gross features.
7. Thick; dense; not attenuated; not refined or pure; as, a gross medium of sight; gross air; gross elements. Bacon. Pope.
8. Unseemly; enormous; shameful; great; as, gross corruptions; gross vices.
9. Stupid; dull. Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear. Milton.
10. Whole; entire; as, the gross sum, or gross amount, as opposed to a sum consisting of separate or specified parts.

GROSS, n.

1. The main body; the chief art; the bulk; the mass; as, the gross of the people. [We now use bulk.] Addison.
2. The number of twelve dozen; twelve times twelve; as, a gross of bottles. It never has the plural form. We say, five gross or ten gross. In the gross, in gross, in the bulk, or the whole undivided; all parts taken together. By the gross, in a like sense. Gross weight, is the weight of merchandise or goods, with the dust and dross, the bag, cask, chest, &c., in which they are contained, for which an allowance is to be made of tare and tret. This being deducted, the remainder or real weight is denominated neat or net weight. Gross weight has lately been abolished in Connecticut by statute, May, 1827. In English law, a villain in gross, was one who did not belong to the land, but immediately to the person of the lord, and was transferrable by deed, like chattels, from one owner to another. Blackstone. Advowson in gross, an advowson separated from the property of a manor, and annexed to the person of its owner. Blackstone. Common in gross, is common annexed to a man's person, and not appurtenant to land. Blackstone.

GROSS'BEAK, n.

A fowl of the genus Loxia, of several species. The bill is convex above and very thick at the base, from which circumstance it takes its name.

GROSS'EST, a.

Coarsest; rudest; most indelicate.

GROSS'-HEAD-ED, a.

Having a thick skull; stupid. Milton.

GROSS'LY, adv.

1. In bulky or large parts; coarsely. This matter is grossly pulverized.
2. Greatly; palpably; enormously; as, this affair has been grossly misrepresented.
3. Greatly; shamefully; as, grossly criminal.
4. Coarsely; without refinement or delicacy; as, language grossly vulgar.
5. Without art or skill.

GROSS'NESS, n.

1. Thickness; bulkiness; corpulence; fatness; applied to animal bodies.
2. Thickness; spissitude; density; as, the grossness of vapors.
3. Coarseness; rudeness; want of refinement or delicacy; vulgarity; as, the grossness of language; the grossness of wit. Abhor the swinish grossness that delights to wound the ear of delicacy. Dwight.
4. Greatness; enormity; as, the grossness of vice.

GROSS'U-LAR, a.

Pertaining to or resembling a gooseberry; as, grossular garnet.

GROSS'U-LAR, n.

A rare mineral of the garnet kind, so named from its green color. [supra.]

GROT, or GROT'TO, n. [Fr. grotte; It. grotta; Sp. and Port. gruta; G. and Dan. grotte; D. grot; Sax. grut. Grotta is not used.]

1. A large cave or den; a subterraneous cavern; and primarily, a natural cave or rent in the earth, or such as is formed by a current of water, or an earthquake. Pope. Prior. Dryden.
2. A cave for coolness and refreshment.

GRO-TESQUE', or GRO-TESK', a. [Fr. grotesque; Sp. and Port. grutesco; It. grottesca; from grotto.]

Wildly formed; whimsical; extravagant; of irregular forms and proportions; ludicrous; antic; resembling the figures found in the subterraneous apartments in the ancient ruins at Rome; applied to pieces of sculpture and painting, and to natural scenery; as, grotesque painting; grotesque design. Dryden.

GRO-TESQUE', or GRO-TESK', n.

Whimsical figures or scenery.