grotty

adjective

ˈgrä-tē How to pronounce grotty (audio)
Definition of grottynext
chiefly British
as in filthy
not clean get rid of that grotty old rag

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of grotty Up until this point, Clive had made peace with frequenting London’s comedy clubs and grotty basements. — Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 10 May 2026 The grotty tenements of the Lower East Side — and the distinct fashion within — is as much of a character in A24’s drama as the eponymous ping pong player himself. — Anna Tingley, Variety, 27 Dec. 2025 Conners in the just-grotty-enough camp classic Showgirls; or Pamela The Last Showgirl Anderson. — Raven Smith, Vogue, 14 Aug. 2025 The show, which chronicled two spiraling roommates in a grotty London flat who invariably do exactly the wrong thing, is not for the faint of heart. — Natasha Frost, New York Times, 21 Mar. 2025 The assault took place on the grottiest of vessels, manned by violent criminals who had been banished into deep space. — Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 28 Feb. 2025 In a stark contrast to its predecessor, the pop star’s EP tracks chronicled the sordid and grotty bits of celebrity. — Charisma Madarang, Rolling Stone, 19 Feb. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for grotty
  1. filthy
  2. dusty
  3. stained
  4. muddy
  5. blackened
  6. dirty
  7. nasty
  8. black
Adjective
  • Some orphans, their faces filthy, walked the stands hawking candy.
    — Dexter Filkins, New Yorker, 14 Oct. 2026
  • Myriad violations, from food that should’ve been trashed weeks earlier to filthy equipment, befouled the state inspection of a West Miami-Dade supermarket this week.
    — David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 11 Oct. 2026
Definition of filthy
Adjective
  • The production is a rattling junk drawer of circuit-bent thrift-store keyboards, dusty drum machines, and unintuitive loops, and KTO combines them into head-scratching, shouldn’t-work grooves.
    — Dash Lewis, Pitchfork, 15 Oct. 2026
  • Coming up from the intertidal, out of the dusty salt wind with his latest find under one arm, Tennent met a woman on her way down.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 15 Oct. 2026
Definition of dusty
Adjective
  • Set your iron to its lowest setting—no steam—and place the stained area between two paper towels or lint-free cloths.
    — Alexandra Emanuelli, Southern Living, 26 Sep. 2026
  • Pushing those briars aside revealed a single splinter of stained glass, bright as a ruby and warm as blood.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 22 Sep. 2026
Definition of stained
Adjective
  • The committee isn’t fully aware of the muddy bog in which Taverner is currently sinking, but Lamb is starting to understand the shape of it.
    — Scott Tobias, Vulture, 14 Oct. 2026
  • But the terrain is treacherous with muddy roads and slippery rocks.
    — Paula Wethington, CBS News, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of muddy
Adjective
  • The land, unfenced, abuts a bald blackened hillside that must be public land.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 28 Aug. 2025
Definition of blackened
Adjective
  • The concentration of quaternary ammonia in the bucket with sanitizer is low (<100 ppm) and the water is visibly dirty.
    — NWA Democrat-Gazette, Arkansas Online, 19 Oct. 2026
  • Many of the strongest initial applications are the dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks that go unfilled, contribute to injuries, and pull people away from higher-value judgment and exception handling.
    — Navin Chaddha, Fortune, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of dirty
Adjective
  • The polls still show a close-range contest, but in the increasingly nasty ad war, the spending suggests a far more lopsided fight.
    — Philip Elliott, Time, 19 Oct. 2026
  • Officers then cuffed the youngster as he was loaded into an ambulance and hospitalized for a fractured femur and a nasty bruise on his head, according to the lawsuit, which was filed by the teen’s dad, Mahmoud Saleh, in Brooklyn Federal Court.
    — John Annese, New York Daily News, 18 Oct. 2026
Definition of nasty
Adjective
  • The march leader’s message echoed out from a black megaphone as the crowd pushed along Capitol Boulevard.
    — Sarah Cutler, Idaho Statesman, 19 Oct. 2026
  • The inside food contact surface of the ice machine had an accumulation of black organic buildup.
    — NWA Democrat-Gazette, Arkansas Online, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of black

Browse Nearby Words

grottoes
grotty
grouch
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Cite this Entry

“Grotty.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/grotty. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.

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