What is Grockle?
1.
A holidaymaker, or one from out of town. Particularly used in the South of England, generally as a mildly derogatory term.
I wish those grockles would all go home, 'cos I can't find anywhere to park the car.
2.
Tourist - annoying visitor, who disrupts the lives of residents.
One theory on the origin of this wordis from the name of the famous Swiss clown, Grock, famous in the 60's. A resident of Torquay was said to have remarked that visitors resembled grockles, little Grocks, because of their boorishness and clownish behaviour.
The word in fact originated from a strip cartoon in the children's comic Dandy entitled 'Danny and his Grockle'. (The grockle was a magical dragon-like creature.) A local man had used the term as a nickname for a small elderly lady who was in Torquay one season. The term then became generalized as a term for summer visitors.
The term became popularized because of its use by the characters in the film The System (1962), which is set in the Devon resort of Torquay during the tourist season.
"Bloody Grockles and their caravans, always jamming up the Devon lanes!"
"The seagulls are a real problem because all the grockles feed 'em chips all summer."
3.
The combined sound of snorting hard that wad of mucus or
Derived from
Spit it out to produce a
Derived from
It makes her feel sick when you grockle like that.
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4.
A holiday maker, but one from outside the local vicinity, i.e. someone holidaying in Christchurch who's from Southampton isn't a grockle. Term used on the south coast and has spread eastwards, stopping at Southampton water. Most commonly heard in the solent town of Lymington where it's used as an insult towards ignorant and usually posh tourists, those with caravans, those with five kids, a dog and granddad tagging along and those that have been coming to the town for twenty years and think they know/own the place. Most commonly heard amongst fed-up shopworkers and working-class locals. Tends not to be applied to foreign tourists as these generally tend to be considerate people when travelling and don't make a nuisance of themselves.
"Heads up, grockle in the shop!"
"I want to take out these grockles with a sniper rifle."
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5.
one who pays the wages of many young people in sea-side/picturesque towns.
one who enables a lot of businesses in sea-side/picturesque towns to remain open, when they would have otherwise died.
shop-keep- "heads up, grockle in store"
grockle spends up big.
shop-keep makes small profit on sale.
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6.
Anyone who is not a member of the upper class / middle-upper class (vast majority of the country then). Can be described as "common" and also relates to '
"I was horrified when I arrived at Puerto Banus near Marbella, I'd heard it was very exclusive but it was FULL of grockles"
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