Green’s Dictionary of Slang

disgusting, unattractive.

1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 24: This grotty leftist karzee could become a second cellar.
1964		A. Owen Hard Day’s Night [film script] simon marshall: Now you’ll like these. You’ll really ‘dig’ them. They’re ‘fab,’ and all the other pimply hyperboles. george: I wouldn’t be seen dead in them. They’re dead grotty. simon marshall: Grotty? george: Yeah, grotesque.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 223: They pay a tenner for a quid’s worth of grotty glassware.
1987		Beano Comic Library No. 124 7: A grotty, mangy evil problem called Gnasher!
1989		R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 66: [He] explained why he’d chosen that particular hotel, even if it was a bit on the grotty side.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 229: What was once a good, grotty local [...] is now a frighteningly sanitised hole.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 284: Anyone who didn’t bother to take care of their shoes or who had grotty clothes was regarded as a ‘chat’, and to be called a chat was a low insult.
2004		T. Winton ‘Defender’ in Turning (2005) 307: I mean it’s just so grotty. The bloke was [...] such a sleaze.
2004		T. Fey Mean Girls [movie script] ‘Trang Pak is a grotsky little byotch’.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 24: A grotty bedsit will come as nothing compared to the real big issues I’m going to have to face.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers 103: I find a grotty cafe and sit down.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 43: [A] grotty troll that needs decimating pronto.