GRAY

grey, gray, greyish, grayish

(adjective) of an achromatic color of any lightness intermediate between the extremes of white and black; “the little grey cells”; “gray flannel suit”; “a man with greyish hair”

grey, gray

(adjective) intermediate in character or position; “a grey area between clearly legal and strictly illegal”

grey, gray

(adjective) used to signify the Confederate forces in the American Civil War (who wore grey uniforms); “a stalwart grey figure”

grey, gray, grey-haired, gray-haired, grey-headed, gray-headed, grizzly, hoar, hoary, white-haired

(adjective) showing characteristics of age, especially having grey or white hair; “whose beard with age is hoar”-Coleridge; “nodded his hoary head”

grey, gray

(noun) horse of a light gray or whitish color

grey, gray

(noun) clothing that is a grey color; “he was dressed in grey”

gray, grayness, grey, greyness

(noun) a neutral achromatic color midway between white and black

grey, gray

(noun) any organization or party whose uniforms or badges are grey; “the Confederate army was a vast grey”

Gray, Asa Gray

(noun) United States botanist who specialized in North American flora and who was an early supporter of Darwin’s theories of evolution (1810-1888)

Gray, Robert Gray

(noun) American navigator who twice circumnavigated the globe and who discovered the Columbia River (1755-1806)

Gray, Thomas Gray

(noun) English poet best known for his elegy written in a country churchyard (1716-1771)

Gray, Louis Harold Gray

(noun) English radiobiologist in whose honor the gray (the SI unit of energy for the absorbed dose of radiation) was named (1905-1965)

gray, Gy

(noun) the SI unit of energy absorbed from ionizing radiation; equal to the absorption of one joule of radiation energy by one kilogram of matter; one gray equals 100 rad

grey, gray

(verb) turn grey; “Her hair began to grey”

grey, gray

(verb) make grey; “The painter decided to grey the sky”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology 1

Adjective

gray (comparative grayer, superlative grayest) (American spelling, spelled “grey” in the UK and the Commonwealth)

Having a color somewhere between white and black, as the ash of an ember.

Dreary, gloomy.

Having an indistinct, disputed or uncertain quality.

Relating to older people.

Verb

gray (third-person singular simple present grays, present participle graying, simple past and past participle grayed) (American spelling, spelled "grey" in the UK and the Commonwealth)

To become gray.

To cause to become gray.

(demography, slang) To turn progressively older, alluding to graying of hair through aging (used in context of the population of a geographic region)

(transitive, photography) To give a soft effect to (a photograph) by covering the negative while printing with a ground-glass plate.

Noun

gray (plural grays) (American spelling, spelled “grey” in the UK and the Commonwealth)

An achromatic colour intermediate between black and white.

An animal or thing of grey colour, such as a horse, badger, or salmon.

(chiefly, US, ufology) an extraterrestrial humanoid with grayish skin, bulbous black eyes, and an enlarged head.

(US, two-up) A penny with a tail on both sides, used for cheating.

Etymology 2

Noun

gray (plural grays)

In the International System of Units, the derived unit of absorbed dose of radiation (radiation absorbed by a patient); one joule of energy absorbed per kilogram of the patient's mass. Symbol: Gy

Coordinate term: rad

Anagrams

• Gary, Yarg, gyra

Proper noun

Gray

A surname; originally a nickname for someone with a gray beard or hair.

A male given name.

A city, the county seat of Jones County, Georgia, United States.

Anagrams

• Gary, Yarg, gyra

Source: Wiktionary


Gray, a. [Compar. Grayer (; superl. Grayest.] Etym: [OE. gray, grey, AS. grg, grg; akin to D. graauw OHG. gro, G. grau, Dan. graa, Dw. gr, Icel. grdr.] [Written also grey.]

1. White mixed with black, as the color of pepper and salt, or of ashes, or of hair whitened by age; sometimes, a dark mixed color; as, the soft gray eye of a dove. These gray and dun colors may be also produced by mixing whites and blacks. Sir I. Newton.

2. Gray-haired; gray-headed; of a gray color; hoary.

3. Old; mature; as, gray experience. Ames. Gray antimony (Min.), stibnite.

– Gray buck (Zoöl.), the chickara.

– Gray cobalt (Min.), smaltite.

– Gray copper (Min.), tetrahedrite.

– Gray duck (Zoöl.), the gadwall; also applied to the female mallard.

– Gray falcon (Zoöl.) the peregrine falcon.

– Gray Friar. See Franciscan, and Friar.

– Gray hen (Zoöl.), the female of the blackcock or black grouse. See Heath grouse.

– Gray mill or millet (Bot.), a name of several plants of the genus Lithospermum; gromwell.

– Gray mullet (Zoöl.) any one of the numerous species of the genus Mugil, or family Mugilidæ, found both in the Old World and America; as the European species (M. capito, and M. auratus), the American striped mullet (M. albula), and the white or silver mullet (M. Braziliensis). See Mullet.

– Gray owl (Zoöl.), the European tawny or brown owl (Syrnium aluco). The great gray owl (Ulula cinerea) inhabits arctic America.

– Gray parrot (Zoöl.), a parrot (Psittacus erithacus), very commonly domesticated, and noted for its aptness in learning to talk.

– Gray pike. (Zoöl.) See Sauger.

– Gray snapper (Zoöl.), a Florida fish; the sea lawyer. See Snapper.

– Gray snipe (Zoöl.), the dowitcher in winter plumage.

– Gray whale (Zoöl.), a rather large and swift California whale (Rhachianectes glaucus), formerly taken in large numbers in the bays;

– called also grayback, devilfish, and hardhead.

Gray, n.

1. A gray color; any mixture of white and black; also, a neutral or whitish tint.

2. An animal or thing of gray color, as a horse, a badger, or a kind of salmon. Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day. That coats thy life, my gallant gray. Sir W. Scott.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

28 April 2024

POLYGENIC

(adjective) of or relating to an inheritable character that is controlled by several genes at once; of or related to or determined by polygenes


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