grunge
Americannoun
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dirt; filth; rubbish.
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something of inferior quality; trash.
He didn't know good music from grunge.
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a person who works hard, usually for meager rewards; grind.
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a style or fashion derived from a movement in rock music: in fashion characterized by unkempt clothing and in music by aggressive, nihilistic songs.
noun
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slang dirt or rubbish
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a style of rock music originating in the US in the late 1980s, featuring a distorted guitar sound
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a deliberately untidy and uncoordinated fashion style
Etymology
Origin of grunge
1960–65; expressive coinage, perhaps reflecting grime and sludge; sense “grind” perhaps by association with drudge
Explanation
Grunge is a grimy, sooty, or otherwise dirty state. The grunge of a rented cabin might have you re-thinking your plans to camp there all weekend. You may romanticize the idea of working on cars at a garage, including the grunge under your fingernails. Grunge is dirt and grime, or the condition of being covered in it. In the mid-1980s, the word was loaned to a new kind of underground music, and the style and culture surrounding it. Mark Arm, the lead singer for a Seattle band, is usually credited with coining this meaning of grunge when he wrote in a 1981 zine, "Pure grunge! Pure noise!"
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.
The grunge collection may have helped define the era’s style and, in later years, proven Jacobs’ visionary status.
From Salon • Mar. 27, 2026
He did a poorly received grunge collection that incoherently tried to marry haute couture with thrift-store shabbiness, and was fired for it.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 19, 2026
Vaguely grunge in vibe, the track overtly recalls second feminism’s suspicion of feminine adornment.
From Salon • Feb. 19, 2026
To showcase the “music, dance styles and feeling of the 1990s,” the ISU pointed them to pop, techno, hip-hop and grunge rock.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 9, 2026
Feigning shame, I showed it to some hard grunge types, to their even harder women, to red-faced professionals.
From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee
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.
