GREY DEFINITIONS - 12 definitions found
grey adj 1: 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" [syn: grey, gray, greyish, grayish] 2: showing characteristics of age, especially having grey or white hair; "whose beard with age is hoar"-Coleridge; "nodded his hoary head" [syn: grey, gray, grey-haired, gray- haired}, grey-headed, gray-headed, grizzly, hoar, hoary, white-haired] 3: used to signify the Confederate forces in the American Civil War (who wore grey uniforms); "a stalwart grey figure" [syn: grey, gray] 4: intermediate in character or position; "a grey area between clearly legal and strictly illegal" [syn: grey, gray] n 1: United States writer of western adventure novels (1875-1939) [syn: Grey, Zane Grey] 2: Queen of England for nine days in 1553; she was quickly replaced by Mary Tudor and beheaded for treason (1537-1554) [syn: Grey, Lady Jane Grey] 3: Englishman who as Prime Minister implemented social reforms including the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire (1764-1845) [syn: Grey, Charles Grey, Second Earl Grey}] 4: any organization or party whose uniforms or badges are grey; "the Confederate army was a vast grey" [syn: grey, gray] 5: a neutral achromatic color midway between white and black [syn: gray, grayness, grey, greyness] 6: clothing that is a grey color; "he was dressed in grey" [syn: grey, gray] 7: horse of a light gray or whitish color [syn: grey, gray] v 1: make grey; "The painter decided to grey the sky" [syn: grey, gray] 2: turn grey; "Her hair began to grey" [syn: grey, gray] grey gyre gery Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition (2003) Grey I. biographical name 2d Earl 1764-1845 Charles Grey English statesman; prime minister (1830-34) II. biographical name Sir Edward 1862-1933 Viscount Grey of Fallodon English politician III. biographical name Lady Jane 1537-1554 titular queen of England for 9 days IV. biographical name Zane 1875-1939 American novelist Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition (2003) grey variant of gray Oxford English Reference Dictionary
Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner\'s English Dictionary grey (greyer, greyest) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. Note: in AM, use 'gray' 1. Grey is the colour of ashes or of clouds on a rainy day. ...a grey suit. COLOUR 2. You use grey to describe the colour of people's hair when it changes from its original colour, usually as they get old. ...my grey hair... Eddie was going grey. ADJ 3. If the weather is grey, there are many clouds in the sky and the light is dull. It was a grey, wet April Sunday. ADJ • greyness ...winter's greyness. N-UNCOUNT 4. If you describe a situation as grey, you mean that it is dull, unpleasant, or difficult. Brazilians look gloomily forward to a New Year that even the president admits will be grey and cheerless. = bleak ADJ • greyness In this new world of greyness there is an attempt to remove all risks. N-UNCOUNT 5. If you describe someone or something as grey, you think that they are boring and unattractive, and very similar to other things or other people. ...little grey men in suits. ADJ [disapproval] • greyness Journalists are frustrated by his apparent greyness. N-UNCOUNT: with supp 6. Journalists sometimes use grey to describe things concerning old people. There was further evidence of grey consumer power last week, when Ford revealed a car designed with elderly people in mind. ADJ English Explanatory Dictionary grey ɡreɪ adj., n., & v. (US gray) --adj. 1 of a colour intermediate between black and white, as of ashes or lead. 2 a (of the weather etc.) dull, dismal; heavily overcast. b bleak, depressing; (of a person) depressed. 3 a (of hair) turning white with age etc. b (of a person) having grey hair. 4 anonymous, nondescript, unidentifiable. --n. 1 a a grey colour or pigment. b grey clothes or material (dressed in grey). 2 a cold sunless light. 3 a grey or white horse. --v.tr. & intr. make or become grey. øgrey area 1 a situation or topic sharing features of more than one category and not clearly attributable to any one category. 2 S.Afr. an area where Black and Coloured people live (usu. illicitly) alongside White. 3 Brit. an area in economic decline. grey eminence = òMINENCE GRISE. Grey Friar a Franciscan friar. grey goose = GREYLAG. grey-hen the female of the black grouse (cf. BLACKCOCK). grey matter 1 the darker tissues of the brain and spinal cord consisting of nerve-cell bodies and branching dendrites. 2 colloq. intelligence. grey squirrel an American squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis, brought to Europe in the 19th c. øøgreyish adj. greyly adv. greyness n. [OE gróg f. Gmc] Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) Grey \Grey\, a. See Gray (the correct orthography). Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) Gray \Gray\, a. [Compar. Grayer; superl. Grayest.] [OE. gray, grey, AS. gr[=ae]g, gr[=e]g; akin to D. graauw, OHG. gr[=a]o, G. grau, Dan. graa, Sw. gr[*a], Icel. gr[=a]r.] [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 (Zo["o]l.), the chickara. Gray cobalt (Min.), smaltite. Gray copper (Min.), tetrahedrite. Gray duck (Zo["o]l.), the gadwall; also applied to the female mallard. Gray falcon (Zo["o]l.) the peregrine falcon. Gray Friar. See Franciscan, and Friar. Gray hen (Zo["o]l.), 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 (Zo["o]l.) any one of the numerous species of the genus Mugil, or family Mugilid[ae], 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 (Zo["o]l.), the European tawny or brown owl ({Syrnium aluco}). The great gray owl ({Ulula cinerea}) inhabits arctic America. Gray parrot (Zo["o]l.), a parrot ({Psittacus erithacus}), very commonly domesticated, and noted for its aptness in learning to talk. Gray pike. (Zo["o]l.) See Sauger. Gray snapper (Zo["o]l.), a Florida fish; the sea lawyer. See Snapper. Gray snipe (Zo["o]l.), the dowitcher in winter plumage. Gray whale (Zo["o]l.), a rather large and swift California whale ({Rhachianectes glaucus}), formerly taken in large numbers in the bays; -- called also grayback, devilfish, and hardhead. English Explanatory Dictionary (Synonyms) grey ɡreɪ adj. 1 ashen, leaden, colourless, pale, pallid, wan, livid, pearly, griseous, smoky, sooty, bloodless: The cadaver's skin was a dead, whitish grey. 2 gloomy, dismal, dull, depressing, glum, dreary, sombre, drab, cheerless, dark, murky, foggy, misty, cloudy, overcast, sunless: As if to mould her temperament, Kathleen was born on a grey December day in 1791. 3 aged, elderly, hoary, old, venerable, ancient: A stooped, grey crone inched along, muttering to herself. 4 mature, wise, experienced: Seventy years have spread their grey experience over his hoary head. Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 203 Moby Thesaurus words for "grey": Quaker-colored, achromatic, achromic, acier, advanced, advanced in life, advanced in years, aged, along in years, ancient, anemic, ashen, ashy, bay, bayard, black, bleak, bled white, bloodless, boring, buckskin, cadaverous, calico pony, canescence, canescent, cheerless, chestnut, chloranemic, cinereous, cinerous, cloudy, colorless, dapple, dapple-gray, dappled, dappled-gray, dark, dead, deadly pale, deathly pale, depressing, dim, dimmed, dingy, discolored, dismal, dove-colored, dove-gray, drab, drabness, drear, drearisome, dreary, dull, dullness, dun, dusty, elderly, etiolated, experienced, exsanguinated, exsanguine, exsanguineous, faded, faint, fallow, flat, foggy, funebrial, funereal, ghastly, glaucescence, glaucescent, glaucous, glaucousness, gloomy, glum, grave, gray, gray with age, gray-black, gray-brown, gray-colored, gray-drab, gray-green, gray-haired, gray-headed, gray-spotted, gray-toned, gray-white, grayed, grayish, grayishness, grayness, grim, griseous, grizzle, grizzled, grizzly, grown old, haggard, hoar, hoary, hueless, humdrum, hypochromic, iron-gray, lackluster, lead-gray, leaden, leadenness, livid, lividity, lividness, lurid, lusterless, mat, mature, mealy, misty, monotonous, mouse-colored, mouse-gray, mousiness, mousy, muddy, murky, neutral, neutral tint, old, old as Methuselah, overcast, paint, painted pony, pale, pale as death, pale-faced, pallid, pasty, patriarchal, pearl, pearl-gray, pearly, piebald, pinto, repetitive, roan, sad, sallow, same, samely, saturnine, senectuous, sickly, silver, silver-gray, silvered, silveriness, silvery, skewbald, slate-colored, slatiness, slaty, smoke-gray, smokiness, smoky, sober, soberness, solemn, somber, somberness, sombrous, sooty, sorrel, steel-gray, steely, stone-colored, sunless, tallow-faced, taupe, tedious, toneless, triste, uncolored, unrelieved, venerable, wan, washed-out, waxen, weak, weariful, wearisome, weary, whey-faced, white, white with age, white-bearded, white-crowned, white-haired, wise, wrinkled, wrinkly, years old |
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