Grots

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Dirty, worthless rubbish or squalid filth, especially the grimy stuff found in neglected or untidy places
2. Squalid dirt and junk that makes a place feel filthy, often used in British slang for something shabby
3. Trash, muck, and grubby debris that accumulates in neglected corners and makes a space look disgusting

Etymology: "Grots" is simply the plural of "grot," so its history is that of the singular noun. "Grot" was formed by shortening "grotto," the word for a small cave or cavelike recess, which English borrowed from Italian "grotta," itself descended from Latin "crypta" and Greek "kryptē," meaning a vault or hidden place. The clipped form is useful because it turns a grand word for a natural cave into something short and slangy. The noun has a second, more recent source as well. Its informal sense of something dirty, shabby or unpleasant appears to have been back-formed from "grotty," an adjective that was itself a slang derivative, so the two words took very different paths from the same underground beginnings. The plural "grots" carries the same informal senses as its singular.

Synonyms: rubbish, filth, muck, dirt, trash

Antonyms: cleanliness