Definition of "gray"

gray¹

/ɡɹeɪ/

adjective
comparative grayer or more gray, superlative grayest or most gray
1. Having a color somewhere between white and black, as the ash of an ember.
2. Dreary, gloomy.
  Quotations
  the era of gray, boring banality and stagnation
  1980, Daniel C. Gerould, Stanisław I. Witkiewicz, The Beelzebub Sonata: Plays, Essays, Documents
3. Having an indistinct, disputed or uncertain quality.
4. Gray-haired.
5. Old.
  Quotations
  Two hours, whose mighty circle did embraceMore time than might make grey the infant world,Rolled thus, a weary and tumultuous space: […]
  1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, page 206
  In a subculture that idealizes youth, being gay and gray does not exactly make one a hot ticket. Older gays and lesbians often relegate themselves to separate and unequal meeting places.
  2004, Betty Berzon, Permanent Partners: Building Gay & Lesbian Relationships That Last, page 20
6. Relating to older people.
  Quotations
  Gray experience listened to his counsels with respect, and, at a time when youth is almost privileged to be rash, Virginia committed the safety of her frontier, and ultimately the safety of America, not merely to his valor,—for that would be scarcely praise,—but to his prudence.
  February 8, 1800, Fisher Ames, Eulogy on Washington
verb
third-person singular simple present grays, present participle graying, simple past and past participle grayed
1. To become gray.
2. To cause to become gray.
3. (demography, slang) To turn progressively older, alluding to graying of hair through aging (used in context of the population of a geographic region)
  Quotations
  It’s not what advocates of retrofitting the suburbs may have had in mind, but it’s a logical outcome of the graying of America, and of suburbia in particular.
  2018 September 18, Amanda Kolson Hurley, “Fake Public Squares Are Coming to the Suburbs”, in The Atlantic‎
4. (transitive, photography) To give a soft effect to (a photograph) by covering the negative while printing with a ground-glass plate.
noun
plural grays
1. An achromatic colour intermediate between black and white.
2. An animal or thing of grey colour, such as a horse, badger, or salmon.
3. A gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus.
  Quotations
  Log-shaped barnacles become embedded in the hide of the gray.
  1971 Mar, National Geographic, page 411
4. (chiefly US, ufology) an extraterrestrial humanoid with grayish skin, bulbous black eyes, and an enlarged head.
5. (US, two-up) A penny with a tail on both sides, used for cheating.

gray²

noun
plural grays
1. 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

Definition of "gray"

gray1

adjective

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations

noun

Quotations

gray2

noun

gray¹

gray²