noun
grime
grym
noun
1
A layer of dirt, soot, or grease that has built up and is hard to remove.
"Years of grime coated the old factory windows."
2
A genre of electronic music that developed in London in the early 2000s, blending elements of UK garage, dancehall, and hip hop.
"Grime helped launch the careers of several major UK rappers."
How to Use Grime
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishGround-in dirt and grease, or the British music genre born out of London's underground scene.
Common pairings
caked in grime
a grime artist
scrub off the grime
Word Forms
grimed past tense, Grimes plural, grimes singular
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Etymology
From Middle English grim, meaning soot or dirt on the face, tracing back to an Old English word for "mask" — dirt-covered skin was once poetically compared to wearing a mask.