grout
Americannoun
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a thin, coarse mortar poured into various narrow cavities, as masonry joints or rock fissures, to fill them and consolidate the adjoining objects into a solid mass.
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a coat of plaster for finishing a ceiling or interior wall.
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Usually grouts. lees; grounds.
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Archaic.
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coarse meal or porridge.
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grouts, groats.
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verb (used with object)
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to fill or consolidate with grout.
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to use as grout.
noun
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a thin mortar for filling joints between tiles, masonry, etc
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a fine plaster used as a finishing coat
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coarse meal or porridge
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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groutsimple
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groutssimple
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have groutedperfect
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has groutedperfect
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am groutingprogressive
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are groutingprogressive
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is groutingprogressive
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have been groutingperfect progressive
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has been groutingperfect progressive
Past
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groutedsimple
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had groutedperfect
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was groutingprogressive
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were groutingprogressive
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had been groutingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of grout
before 1150; Middle English; Old English grūt; see grits, groats, grit
Explanation
Grout is a paste or putty that you use to fill in the spaces between tiles or along the edge of a tub. When grout dries, it keeps tiles in place, and once it's sealed, it protects against moisture. An old-fashioned meaning of grout is "porridge or gruel," from the Old English gruta, "coarse meal," and a root meaning "to grind." These days you don't eat grout, but instead use it in home improvement projects, especially between floor or wall tiles. As a verb, to grout means "to apply grout."
Vocabulary lists containing grout
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Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But you don’t have to compute the coefficient to know that matte tiles are better than shiny ones, and small tiles are better than the big ones because the grout lines provide friction.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
There were places on the facade where a single tile needed to fit in the grout on the wall.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 10, 2025
Regulators also have agreed to turn some of that waste into a concrete-like grout, rather than immobilizing it in glass.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 30, 2024
From the acidic brine of pickle juice to the grout between your bathroom tiles, mold can thrive in even the most inhospitable environments.
From National Geographic ● Nov. 10, 2023
I could not deny it; and yet endeavored to, when she demanded, “And the fine Dr. Trefusis don’t have a grout to his name, does he?”
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
Both sanded and unsanded grouts are cement-based or latex-modified products.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 5, 2021
For cement-based or latex-modified grouts, it’s safest to work on only about three square feet at a time.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 5, 2021
Sanded and unsanded grouts are mixed with water and installation and cleanup are simple.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 4, 2021
The size of Longo's voyeuristic images reflects the scale of his essential subject: the American consciousness industry, and the way it grouts every cranny in public life.
From Time Magazine Archive
Oatmeal or porridge is always called "grouts"; and the Cotswold native does not talk of hoisting a ladder, but "highsting" is the term he uses.
From A Cotswold Village by Gibbs, J. Arthur
The GAO says costs could be cut by tens of billions of dollars if some of the low-activity waste were grouted, or immobilized in concrete, and shipped out of Washington for disposal.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 12, 2022
Once a toilet is bolted correctly to the flange, the gap between the base of the toilet and the floor should be grouted using regular tile grout.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 21, 2021
As for instances already encountered, she said, “all subsidence areas have been sealed, grouted and fully restored. This is standard industry practice in these situations.”
From Washington Times ● Oct. 27, 2018
More than 240 miles of drains have been cleared of debris and 1,500 leaks grouted.
From New York Times ● Jul. 23, 2018
To give stability the sides of the voussoirs are gauged out hollow and grouted in Portland cement, thus connecting each brick with the next by a joggle joint.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" by Various
Originally envisioned as a means to an end, the express trains, steam trains and mail trains quickly became the focus of my journey, the cities and towns like grouting smoothed around the tracks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 29, 2025
Crews need to test the road’s base, which includes drilling and grouting of smaller holes and voids in the surrounding area.
From Slate ● Oct. 17, 2025
Once he was inside, Chris noticed problems: "I have a photo where there were actual mushrooms growing out of the grouting in the bathroom," he says.
From BBC ● Dec. 4, 2023
Just a few blocks from the newer memorials, cracks are appearing in the grouting of a 1995 art installation by the sculptor Martin Puryear.
From New York Times ● Dec. 29, 2021
Some of the cement grouting between the bricks had to be replaced, and he wrote her name in the new cement.
From "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
