gray Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a neutral achromatic color midway between white and black
    grayness; greyness; grey.
  2. noun clothing that is a grey color
    grey.
    • he was dressed in grey
  3. noun any organization or party whose uniforms or badges are grey
    grey.
    • the Confederate army was a vast grey
  4. noun horse of a light gray or whitish color
    grey.
  5. 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
    Gy.
  6. noun English radiobiologist in whose honor the gray (the SI unit of energy for the absorbed dose of radiation) was named (1905-1965)
    Louis Harold Gray.
  7. noun English poet best known for his elegy written in a country churchyard (1716-1771)
    Thomas Gray.
  8. noun American navigator who twice circumnavigated the globe and who discovered the Columbia River (1755-1806)
    Robert Gray.
  9. noun United States botanist who specialized in North American flora and who was an early supporter of Darwin's theories of evolution (1810-1888)
    Asa Gray.
  10. verb make grey
    grey.
    • The painter decided to grey the sky
  11. verb turn grey
    grey.
    • Her hair began to grey
  12. adjective satellite of an achromatic color of any lightness intermediate between the extremes of white and black
    greyish; grayish; grey.
    • the little grey cells
    • gray flannel suit
    • a man with greyish hair
  13. adjective satellite showing characteristics of age, especially having grey or white hair
    gray-headed; grey-haired; grey-headed; hoary; grizzly; grey; white-haired; hoar; gray-haired.
    • whose beard with age is hoar"-Coleridge
    • nodded his hoary head
  14. adjective satellite used to signify the Confederate forces in the American Civil War (who wore grey uniforms)
    grey.
    • a stalwart grey figure
  15. adjective satellite intermediate in character or position
    grey.
    • a grey area between clearly legal and strictly illegal

WordNet

Gray adjective
Etymology
OE. gray, grey, AS. gr?g, gr?g; akin to D. graauw OHG. gr?o, G. grau, Dan. graa, Dw. gr?, Icel. grdr.
Wordforms
comparative Grayer ; superlative Grayest
Definitions
  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 noun
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913