grunge
[gruhnj]
- dirt; filth; rubbish.
- something of inferior quality; trash: He didn't know good music from grunge.
- a person who works hard, usually for meager rewards; grind.
- a style or fashion derived from a movement in rock music: in fashion characterized by unkempt clothing and in music by aggressive, nihilistic songs.
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Origin of grunge
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for grunge
Contemporary Examples
Grunge makes sense if you're a sad, self-righteous teenager.
Remembering Weezer’s ‘The Blue Album,’ A Garage Rock Classic, on Its 20th AnniversaryAndrew Romano
May 10, 2014
Seriously—go raid your dusty CaseLogic archives and listen to a bunch of early, non-Nirvana grunge CDs sometime.
Remembering Weezer’s ‘The Blue Album,’ A Garage Rock Classic, on Its 20th AnniversaryAndrew Romano
May 10, 2014
The fascinating tragedy of Flappy Bird might go down in history as a defining “grunge moment” for videogames.
There was the grunge trend, of course, and the mainstreaming of hip-hop gear.
Finally! ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ Is Hollywood’s First 1990s Period PieceAndrew Romano
December 23, 2013
Looking back, I feel like there was something really magical about that whole period: Generation X, Grunge, slackers.
grunge
- US slang dirt or rubbish
- a style of rock music originating in the US in the late 1980s, featuring a distorted guitar sound
- a deliberately untidy and uncoordinated fashion style
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Word Origin
C20: possibly a coinage imitating grime + sludge
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for grunge
n.
"sloppiness," also "untidy person," 1965, American English teen slang, probably a back-formation from grungy. The music and fashion style that originated in Seattle is attested from the early 1990s.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper