Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Gray

Gray (grā), a. [Compar. Grayer; superl. Grayest.] [OE. gray, grey, AS. grǣg, grēg; akin to D. graauw, OHG. grāo, G. grau, Dan. graa, Sw. grå, Icel. grār.] [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 (Zoöl.), the chickara. — Gray cobalt (Min.), smaltite. — Gray copper (Min.), tetrahedrite. — Gray duck (Zoöl.), the gadwall; also applied to the female mallard. — Gray falcon (Zoöl.) the peregrine falcon. — Gray Friar. See Franciscan, and Friar. — Gray hen (Zoöl.), 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 (Zoöl.) 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 (M. capito, and M. auratus), the American striped mullet (M. albula), and the white or silver mullet (M. Braziliensis). See Mullet. — Gray owl (Zoöl.), the European tawny or brown owl (Syrnium aluco). The great gray owl (Ulula cinerea) inhabits arctic America. — Gray parrot (Zoöl.), a parrot (Psittacus erithacus), very commonly domesticated, and noted for its aptness in learning to talk. — Gray pike. (Zoöl.) See Sauger. — Gray snapper (Zoöl.), a Florida fish; the sea lawyer. See Snapper. — Gray snipe (Zoöl.), the dowitcher in winter plumage. — Gray whale (Zoöl.), a rather large and swift California whale (Rhachianectes glaucus), formerly taken in large numbers in the bays; — called also grayback, devilfish, and hardhead.

Gray, n. 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’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.