grime

From Middle English grim (“dirt or soot covering the face”), from a specialized note of Old English grīma (“mask”), from Proto-Germanic *grīmô (“mask”).

Possibly influenced by dialectal Dutch grijmsel, Middle Dutch grime, Middle Low German greme (“dirt”), compare Danish grime (“a halter”), Danish grimet (“soiled, stripy”), Norwegian Bokmål grimete (“soiled, stripy”), Norwegian Nynorsk grimete (“soiled, stripy”).

• IPA^(key): /ɡɹaɪm/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪm

grime (uncountable)

1. Dirt, grease, soot, etc. that is ingrained and difficult to remove.

   Underneath all that soot, dirt and grime is the true beauty of the church in soft shades of sandstone.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall.  Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime.

2. (music) A genre of urban music that emerged in London, England, in the early 2000s, primarily a development of UK garage, dancehall, and hip hop.

• grimeless
• grimy
• rhythm and grime

grime (third-person singular simple present grimes, present participle griming, simple past and past participle grimed)

1. To begrime; to cake with dirt.
   • 1862, Edwin Waugh, Home-Life of the Lancashire Factory Folk during the Cotton Famine‎^[1]:

     All grimed with coaldust, they swing along the street with their dinner baskets and cans in their hands, chattering merrily.

   • 1920, Harold Bindloss, Lister's Great Adventure‎^[2]:

     Fog from the river rolled up the street and the windows were grimed by soot, but Cartwright had not turned on the electric light.

   • 1918, Harold Bindloss, The Buccaneer Farmer‎^[3]:

     His skin was grimed with dust, for he had ridden hard in scorching heat, and was anxious and impatient to get on.

• begrime

• gerim

From Old Norse gríma f, from Proto-Germanic *grimô m (“mask; visor”). Cognates include English grime and grimace.

• IPA^(key): /ɡriː.mə/

grime

1. a halter
2. a facial stripe

• IPA^(key): /ɡʁim/
• Homophones: griment, grimes

grime

1. inflection of grimer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

grime f or m (definite singular grima or grimen, indefinite plural grimer, definite plural grimene)

1. a halter

grime (present tense grimer, past tense grima or grimet, past participle grima or grimet)

1. (transitive) to halter

• grima

From Old Norse gríma f, from Proto-Germanic *grimô m (“mask; visor”). Cognates include English grime and grimace. The verb is derived from the noun.

• IPA^(key): /²ɡriː.mə/

grime f (definite singular grima, indefinite plural grimer, definite plural grimene)

1. a halter
2. a facial stripe

• grimeleie
• grimete
• slite grima
• åregrime

• grim
• grimase

grime (present tense grimar, past tense grima, past participle grima, passive infinitive grimast, present participle grimande, imperative grime/grim)

1. (transitive) to halter

• “grime” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
• “grima” in Ivar Aasen (1873) Norsk Ordbog med dansk Forklaring

grime m (uncountable)

1. (music) grime (a genre of urban music)

• gryme, greim

Of West Flemish origin.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡrəi̯m/

grime (third-person singular simple present grimes, present participle grimein, simple past grimet, past participle grimet)

1. (archaic) To sprinkle, fleck, or to cover with a layer of fine material (e.g. snow, dust).

grime m (plural grimes)

1. grime (music genre)

Borrowed from Dutch grim; see the verb grimmen (“to roar, be wrathful”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡrimə/

grime c (no plural)

1. anger, wrath

• “grime (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011