gray

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Of a colour between black and white, like a cloudy sky.

   He wore a plain gray suit to work.

2. 2
   adj

   Dull, gloomy, or cloudy.

   It was a cold, gray morning in November.

3. 3
   adj

   Having gray or white hair, usually from age.

   His hair had gone gray over the years.

4. 4
   verb

   To become gray, especially of hair.

   My hair is beginning to gray.

From Middle English gray, from Old English grǣġ, grǣw (“grey”), from Proto-West Germanic *grāu, from Proto-Germanic *grēwaz (“grey”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰreh₁- (“to green, to grow”). Cognate with West Frisian grau (“grey”), Dutch grauw (“grey”), German Low German grau, graag (“grey”), German grau (“grey”), Swedish grå (“grey”), Icelandic grár (“grey”), Latin rāvus (“tawny, grey”), Old Church Slavonic зьрѭ (zĭrjǫ, “to see, to glance”), archaic Russian зреть (zretʹ, “to watch, to look at”), Lithuanian žeriù (“to shine”).

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