adj. 1. 1 pale gray; ash-colored.
Syn. -- ash-grey, ashy. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adj. very dark gray.
Syn. -- charcoal. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. [ Compar. Grayer superl. Grayest. ] [ OE. gray, grey, AS. gr&aemacr_;g, grēg; akin to D. graauw, OHG. grāo, G. grau, Dan. graa, Sw. grå, Icel. grār. ] [ Written also grey. ] 1. any color of neutral hue between white and black; 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

These gray and dun colors may be also produced by mixing whites and blacks. Sir I. Newton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Gray-haired; gray-headed; of a gray color; hoary. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Old; mature; as, gray experience. Ames. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. gloomy; dismal. [ PJC ]

Gray antimony (Min.), stibnite. --
Gray buck (Zool.), the chickara. --
Gray cobalt (Min.), smaltite. --
Gray copper (Min.), tetrahedrite. --
Gray duck (Zool.), the gadwall; also applied to the female mallard. --
Gray falcon (Zool.) the peregrine falcon. --
Gray Friar. See Franciscan, and Friar. --
Gray hen (Zool.), the female of the blackcock or black grouse. See Heath grouse. --
Gray mill or
Gray millet (Bot.), a name of several plants of the genus Lithospermum; gromwell. --
Gray mullet (Zool.) 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 (Mugilidæ capito, and Mugilidæ auratus), the American striped mullet (Mugilidæ albula), and the white or silver mullet (Mugilidæ Braziliensis). See Mullet. --
Gray owl (Zool.), the European tawny or brown owl (Syrnium aluco). The great gray owl (Ulula cinerea) inhabits arctic America. --
Gray parrot (Zool.), an African parrot (Psittacus erithacus), very commonly domesticated, and noted for its aptness in learning to talk. Also called jako. --
Gray pike. (Zool.) See Sauger. --
Gray snapper (Zool.), a Florida fish; the sea lawyer. See Snapper. --
Gray snipe (Zool.), the dowitcher in winter plumage. --
Gray whale (Zool.), a rather large and swift whale of the northern Pacific (Eschrichtius robustus, formerly Rhachianectes glaucus), having short jaws and no dorsal fin. It grows to a length of 50 feet (someimes 60 feet). It was formerly taken in large numbers in the bays of California, and is now rare; -- called also grayback, devilfish, and hardhead. It lives up to 50 or 60 years and adults weigh from 20 to 40 tons. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A gray color; any mixture of white and black; also, a neutral or whitish tint. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An animal or thing of gray color, as a horse, a badger, or a kind of salmon. [ 1913 Webster ]

Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day.
That coats thy life, my gallant gray. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (U. S. History) the Confederate army or a soldier in the confederate army; as, a battle between the blue and the gray. [ PJC ]

n. [ named after Louis Harold Gray, English radiobiologist. ] the SI unit of absorbed dosage of ionizing radiation, equal to an absorbed energy of 1 joule per kilogram of irradiated material; -- abbreviated Gy. This unit is 100 times the commonly used unit, the rad. [ PJC ]

n. (Zool.) (a) The California gray whale. (b) The redbreasted sandpiper or knot. (c) The dowitcher. (d) The body louse. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An old man. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) The trumpet fly. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. showing characteristics of age, especially having gray or white hair.
Syn. -- gray, grey, grey-haired, grey-headed, hoar, hoary. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. (Zool.) See Greyhound. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Somewhat gray. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) The common wild gray goose (Anser anser) of Europe, believed to be the wild form of the domestic goose. See Illust. of Goose. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ From Gray, a. ] 1. (Zool.) A European fish (Thymallus vulgaris), allied to the trout, but having a very broad dorsal fin; -- called also umber. It inhabits cold mountain streams, and is valued as a game fish. [ 1913 Webster ]

And here and there a lusty trout,
And here and there a grayling. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) An American fish of the genus Thymallus, having similar habits to the above; one species (T. Ontariensis), inhabits several streams in Michigan; another (T. montanus), is found in the Yellowstone region. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being gray. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Geol.) A grayish or greenish compact rock, composed of feldspar and augite, and allied to basalt. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ G. grauwacke; grau gray + wacke wacke. See Gray, and Wacke, and cf. Grauwacke. ] (Geol.) A conglomerate or grit rock, consisting of rounded pebbles and sand firmly united together. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ This term, derived from the grauwacke of German miners, was formerly applied in geology to different grits and slates of the Silurian series; but it is now seldom used. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Zool.), a rather large and swift baleen whale of the northern Pacific (Eschrichtius robustus, formerly Rhachianectes glaucus), having short jaws and no dorsal fin; -- called also grayback, devilfish, and hardhead. It grows to a length of 50 feet (sometimes 60 feet). It was formerly taken in large numbers in the bays of California, and is now rare. It lives up to 50 or 60 years and adults weigh from 20 to 40 tons. [ 1913 Webster + PJC ]

a. [ Perh. akin to E. hoiden rustic, clownish. ] Applied to coarse cloth made of undyed wool, formerly worn by Scotch peasants. [ Scot. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of a gray color, somewhat resembling that of iron freshly broken. -- n. An iron-gray color; also, a horse of this color. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having a gray color with a silvery luster; as, silver-gray hair. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of a dark gray, like slate. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ or }, n. Any one of numerous rays of the family Dasyatidae, syn. Trygonidae, having one or more large sharp barbed dorsal spines, on the whiplike tail, capable of inflicting severe wounds. Some species reach a large size, and some, esp., on the American Pacific coast, are very destructive to oysters. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]