| 释义 |
▪ I. grey, gray, a. and n.|greɪ|
Forms: α. 1 grǽᵹ, 3–4 grai, 4–6 graye, (6 graie, Sc. gra), 4– gray. β. 1 gréᵹ, gréiᵹ, gréi, 3 grei, 3–4 greye, 4 greyȝe, 4– grey.
[OE. grǽᵹ = OFris. grê, MDu. grau, gra (Du. grauw), OHG. grâo, pl. grâwe (MHG. grâo, mod.G. grau), ON. grá-r (Sw. grå, Da. graa), repr. two OTeut. types *græ̂go- and græ̂wo-:—pre-Teut. *ghrēgwho- (or *ghrēgh-wo-, the suffix -wo- being frequent in colour-adjs.), with variable accent. Outside Teut. no affinities have been found; the word has no connexion with OHG. grîs (Ger. greis), whence F. gris.
Each of the current spellings has some analogical support. The only mod.Eng. words repr. OE. words ending in -ǽᵹ are key (which is irrelevant on account of its pronunciation), whey, and clay. If we further take into consideration the words repr. OE. words in -ǽᵹe, viz. blay or bley, fey, wey, we have three (or four) instances of ey and only two (or one) of ay. On the other hand, this advantage in favour of grey is counterbalanced by the facts that clay is the only word of the five which is in very general use, and that grey is phonetically ambiguous, while gray is not. With regard to the question of usage, an inquiry by Dr. Murray in Nov. 1893 elicited a large number of replies, from which it appeared that in Great Britain the form grey is the more frequent in use, notwithstanding the authority of Johnson and later Eng. lexicographers, who have all given the preference to gray. In answer to questions as to their practice, the printers of The Times stated that they always used the form gray; Messrs. Spottiswoode and Messrs. Clowes always used grey; other eminent printing firms had no fixed rule. Many correspondents said that they used the two forms with a difference of meaning or application: the distinction most generally recognized being that grey denotes a more delicate or a lighter tint than gray. Others considered the difference to be that gray is a ‘warmer’ colour, or that it has a mixture of red or brown (cf. also the quot. under 1 c below). In the twentieth century, grey has become the established spelling in the U.K., whilst gray is standard in the United States. There seems to be nearly absolute unanimity as to the spelling of ‘The Scots Greys’, ‘a pair of greys’. As the word is both etymologically and phonetically one, it is undesirable to treat its graphic forms as differing in signification.]
A. adj.
1. a. The adjective denoting the colour intermediate between black and white, or composed of a mixture of black and white with little or no positive hue; ash-coloured, lead-coloured.
Said of sea, sky, and cloud when not illuminated by the sun.
a1000Cædmon's Gen. 2865 (Gr.) Ac hine se halᵹa wer gyrde græᵹan sweorde. a1000Boeth. Metr. v. 8 Oft smylte sæ suðerne wind, græᵹe glashlutre, grimme ᵹedrefeð. c1000ælfric Saints' Lives II. 324 Þa læᵹ se græᵹa wulf þe bewiste þæt heafod. a1300Cursor M. 9886 Þis castel..It es hei sett a-pon þe crag, Grai [Gött. Gray] and hard. a1400–50Alexander 1330 He mas to graue sum in grete & sum in gray marble. 1527Andrew Brunswyke's Distyll. Waters F ij b, It is rede that the graye water snakes engendreth them with the eale. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. ii. 28 Two goodly trees..did spred Their armes abroad, with gray mosse overcast. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. iii. 19 It stucke vpon him, as the Sunne In the gray vault of Heauen. 1817Coleridge Sibyll. Leaves (1862) 274 The night is chill, the cloud is gray. 1857Willmott Pleas. Lit. xi. 49 A coarse coat of gray cloth. 1874Blackie Self-Cult. 14 Ask yourself..not what you saw printed on a gray page, but what you see pictured in the glowing gallery of your imagination.
βa700Epinal Gloss. 473 Glaucum, heuui vel grei. c725Ags. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 21 Feruginius, greiᵹ. a1225Ancr. R. 12 Her inne is religiun & nout iþe wide hod..ne iðe greȝe kuuele. c1250Gen. & Ex. 1723 Sep or got, haswed, arled, or grei, Ben don fro iacob fer a-wei. c1315Shoreham 145 Sonne and mone and sterren greyȝe. 1466Paston Lett. No. 549 II. 270 For grey lynen cloth and sylk frenge for the hers. 1576Turberv. Venerie 184 As touching their heare they have a grey coate..waxyng greyer and greyer the elder that they bee. 1662J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 207 Clad in a grey Garment. 1724De Foe Mem. Cavalier (1840) 237, I had pistols under my grey frock. 1820Byron Mar. Fal. iv. ii, The air puts on A morning freshness..The sea looks greyer. 1821Craig Lect. Drawing iii. 184 Your next proceeding will be to insert the grey tints. 1841Browning Pippa Passes Introd. 209 Down the grass path grey with dew. 1882Ouida Maremma I. 178 The plain grew yellower and the sky greyer. 1884West. Daily Press 17 Dec. 3/5 Capes of curled Crimean lamb—so often called grey astrakan.
Proverb.1546J. Heywood Prov. v. (1874) 22 When all candles bee out all cats be gray. [1605Shakes. Lear iii. vi. 47 (Qos. 1–2) Pur the cat is gray.] a1700in B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Joan. 1809 E. S. Barrett Setting Sun I. 80 All Cats are grey in the dusk.
b. with prefixed word indicating some particular shade of grey, as dark, light, sad, silver, slatey, whitish, etc.; cf. B. 4 b; also dapple-grey, iron-grey.
a1000ælfric Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 163/25 Elbus, deorce⁓græᵹ. 1799G. Smith Laboratory II. 311 Dubbing of the down of a sad grey cat. 1843Macaulay Lays Anc. Rome, Battle Regillus xi, High on a gallant charger Of dark-grey hue he rode. 1859Semple Diphtheria 272 Thin elastic layers, of a whitish-grey colour. 1883Truth 31 May 747/1 A very becoming gown of silver-grey surah.
¶c. (See quot.)
1885Field's Chromatography iii. 38 note, The distinction between grey and gray should be carefully observed. Grey is composed only of black and white; the term gray is applied to any broken colour of a cool hue, and therefore belongs to the class of chromatic colours.
2. Epithet: (a) of the Cistercian monks; (b) of the Franciscan friars; (c) of the sisters of the third order of St. Francis, on account of the colour of their habits. See also Grey friar.
c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 149. 1497 Greye Monekes of Cisteos. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 9072 Vor þe ordre of greye monekes þoru him me broȝte Verst here in to engelond. c1300Beket 1228 Tuelf myle he ȝeode grete ynouȝ to a grei abbeye, That me clipeþ Clermareys, of greye monekes. 1567Gude & Godlie Ballatis (S.T.S.) 205 The Sisteris gray, befoir this day, Did crune within thair cloister. a1596in Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. i. 148 It was the Friar of Orders gray. 1796M. Robinson Angelina III. 24 The grey sisters were endowed with five hundred marks a year, to say masses for the souls of the unhappy lovers. a1832Scott Grey Brother xxvi, He..there was aware of a Grey Friar..‘Now, Christ thee save!’ said the Grey Brother.
3. Of the eyes: Having a grey iris.
αa1310in Wright Lyric P. 39 Gret hire wel, that swete thyng, with eȝenen gray. c1420Anturs of Arth. 599 (Ireland MS.) Dame Gaynour, with hur gray een. 1548Hall Chron., 3 Rich. III (1809) 416 His eyes gray shynynge and quicke. 1611Cotgr. s.v. Verd, Oeil verd, a gray eye.
βc1386Chaucer Reeve's T. 54 This wenche thikke and wel ygrowen was, With kamuse nose and eyen greye as glas. a1440Sir Eglam. 861 Hys eyen grey as crystalle stone. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. iv. iv. 197 Her eyes are grey as glasse. [Malone in Shakes. Wks. 1821 IV. 118 By a grey eye was meant what we now call a blue eye.] 1891E. Peacock N. Brendon II. 42 Keen, searching, grey eyes.
4. a. Of a horse: Having a grey coat.
α1380in Test. Karl. (1893) 143, J equum graye. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. xxxix. (1495) 800 The colour in horses is now redde now blacke now whyte now graye now dyuers. 1590Spenser F.Q. ii. i. 18 But under him a gray steede he did wield. 1601Shakes. Twel. N. iii. iv. 315 Ile giue him my horse, gray Capilet. 1897Times 17 Feb. 8/2 The intended reorganization..will not prevent the Scots Greys retaining their gray horses.
β1390–1Earl Derby's Exped. (Camden) 5 Edmundo Bugge pro j equo grey. 1595Nottingham Rec. IV. 62 Unus equus juvencus, coloris grey et baye. 1843Macaulay Lays Anc. Rome, Battle Regillus xxviii, Horses black and grey. 1865Trollope Belton Est. vii. 73 An old grey horse.
b. Proverb. the grey mare is the better horse: the wife rules the husband. Hence, in allusion to this proverb, simply the grey mare: the wife who rules her husband.
1546J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 52 The grey mare is the better hors. c1645Howell Lett. I. iv. ix, To suffer the Gray-mare sometimes to be the better Horse. 1700R. Cromwell Let. in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1898) XIII. 117 Shee tells him (as being the gray mare) he could not goe. 1726Adv. Capt. R. Boyle 2 She began to tyrannize over my Master,..and soon prov'd, as the Saying is, The grey Mare to be the better Horse. 1847Tennyson Princ. v. 441 The gray mare Is ill to live with, when her whinny shrills From tile to scullery. 1876C. M. Yonge Womankind xxii. 183 The grey-mare may keep down the husband who chose her,..but she cannot restrain her growing-up sons.
5. a. Used to describe the dull or cold light of twilight, or of a day when the sky is overclouded.
αa1400–50Alexander 2044 Begynnys sone in þe gray day as any gleme springis. c1401Lydg. Flour Curtesye 9 The same tyme, I herde a larke singe Ful lustely, agayn the morowe gray. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 85 Lyke as the gray mornynge breketh & spryngeth before y⊇ presence of the sonne. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. ii. 19 In the gray light of the evening.
βc1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 145 Eerli and in þe grey day Camen wymmen to se þe sepulcre. 1730T. Boston Mem. 286 It was a grey day with some pleasant blinks. 1780Cowper Progr. Err. 82 Grey dawn appears. 1816Byron Prisoner of Chillon ix, For all was blank, and bleak, and grey, It was not night—it was not day. 1870E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. III. 86 In the grey twilight. 1898Mag. Art Feb. 212 Those [painters]..for whom Nature is only at her best on a nice grey day.
b. fig. Not bright or hopeful; dismal, gloomy; sad, depressing; esp. in phr. to go a grey gate (dial.). spec. Of a person: dull, anonymous, ‘faceless’. Cf. n. 5 c.
1721Kelly Scot. Prov. 380 You'll gang a gray Gate yet..you will come to an ill End. 1783–94Blake Songs Innoc., Earth's Answer 6 Her locks cover'd with grey despair. 1820Blackw. Mag. June 281 Its a sad and sair pity to behold youthfu' blood gaun a gate sae gray. 1846Brockett N.C. Words (ed. 3), He has gane a grey gate. 1871J. Caird Univ. Serm. (1898) i. 12 The solace of a life perhaps hard and grim and grey. 1874Blackie Self-Cult. 44 The student who stays at home, and learns in a gray way only from books. 1884E. Lyall We Two xxxii, Those were grey years, Erica. 1967[see grey n. 5 c below]. 1969Times 8 Aug. 3/3 The identity of these grey men of politics should be revealed. 1969Sunday Times (Colour Suppl.) 9 Nov. 80/3 Oh no, it's no myth. When he leaves university he is often very, very grey. 1969Gandalf's Garden iv. 22/2 What about the Universities? (Surely ranking among Britain's most proficient and prolific in the churning out of grey people.)
c. Used in various collocations in the place of black to indicate a less extreme form of the activity, object, etc. See also grey market, grey-out (8 a below).
1966Punch 14 Dec. 900/2 A Hero of Modern Industry..could, I suppose, be described as a grey rather than a black comedy, on the grounds that no one actually gets killed. 1967Economist 29 Apr. 487/3 The grey list..cannot strictly be defined as a banned list, but the Ministry of Health has drawn up for doctors' guidance, ten pages of drugs..that it would prefer them not to prescribe. 1970Guardian 26 Mar. 26/4 As for the over⁓prescribing doctors, it was not just the black sheep we had to worry about. It was the grey sheep too.
6. a. Of the hair or beard: That is turning white (as with age or grief).
This use is of somewhat late appearance in Eng., but now one of the most prominent applications of the word.
α13..–1440 [see grey-haired a.]. 1535Coverdale Prov. xx. 29 A gray heade, is an honoure vnto the aged. 1581Marbeck Bk. of Notes 60 Like an olde man in a graie beard. a1631Donne Poems (1650) 8 When with my browne, my gray haires equall be. 1769Junius Lett. xxiii. 112 Can gray hairs make folly venerable?
β1577Stanyhurst Descr. Irel. iv. 39 in Holinshed, In which well such as loath greie heares are accustomed to diue. 1599Shakes. Much Ado v. i. 65, I..with grey haires and bruise of many daies, Do challenge thee. 1653R. Sanders Physiogn. 169 Hairs, black, red, flaxen, and white or grey. 1725Watts Logic ii. iii. §2 Remember that a grey Beard does not make a Philosopher. 1797Southey K. Charlemain xviii, [He] kiss'd his long grey grizzle beard. 1816Byron Prisoner of Chillon 1 My hair is grey, but not with years. 1883Gd. Words 640 His grizzled hair was greyer.
b. Of a person: Having grey hair; grey-haired.
αc1483Caxton Dialogues (E.E.T.S.) 44/24 He may no more for age; he is alle graye. 1626Bacon Sylva §739 Divers with us that are grown Gray. 1784Cowper Task ii. 633 We grow early gray, but never wise.
β1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 499 That grey Iniquitie, that Father Ruffian. 1742Young Nt. Th. ii. 386 Who knows not this, tho' Grey, is still a Child. 1855Prescott Philip II, I. i. v. 64 He had grown grey in the service of the court. 1865Kingsley Herew. xv. 196 He had got somewhat greyer in the last ten years. 1898J. Hutchinson Archives Surg. IX. No. 36. 343 He was a thin grey man.
c. fig. Also, ancient, old.
1662Glanvill Lux Orient. i. (1682) 2 If..this Grey Dogma clear all doubts. 1742Shenstone Schoolmistress 95 Herbs for use, and physic, not a few Of grey renown. 1814Scott Ld. of Isles iv. vii, Mac-Kinnon's chief, in warfare grey. 1826Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Pop. Fallacies, Our spirits showed grey before our hairs. 1842Miall in Nonconf. II. 249 [The state-church's] errors and superstitions are venerably grey.
d. Belonging to old age; hence (of advice, experience, etc.), mature.
α1602Marston Antonio's Rev. iv. v, I tell thee, youth, age knows, yong loues seeme grac't, Which with gray cares, rude iarres, are oft defac't. 1627–47Feltham Resolves i. 200 The Macedonian proved himself a better Physician for calumny by his bounties; than his Philosophers by their gray advisements. 1693T. Creech in Dryden's Juvenal xiii. (1697) 322 When sixty Years have spread Their gray Experience o'er thy hoary Head! 1874L. Morris Song Two W. Ser. ii. ii, Gray wisdom comes with time and age.
β1775Sheridan Rivals 2nd Prol., Is grey experience suited to her youth? 1866Ruskin Crown Wild Olive Pref. 33 This..you may win, while yet you live; type of grey honour, and sweet rest.
e. Of a person: white-skinned. U.S. Black slang. Cf. n. 5 b.
1962Times Lit. Suppl. 21 Sept. 706/3 The ‘grey boys’, as Mr. Simmons calls white men. 1965E. Lacy Moment of Untruth iv. 69 Funny thing with grey chicks... They're always so sure their white skin is the sexiest ever. Ibid. vii. 112, I appreciate your socking that lousy grey dick.
7. General combinations:
a. qualifying the names of other colours, as grey-black, grey-brindled, grey-brown, grey-green, grey-white, etc. Also grey-blue.
1796Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) IV. 63 Foliage grey brown. Ibid. 269 Gills watery white changing to grey green. 1804Coleridge Lett. (1895) 482 Nothing green meets your eye—one dreary grey-white. 1839Bailey Festus vii. (1848) 74 Gray-green oaks. 1849D. Campbell Inorg. Chem. 329 Glucina, or its compounds..become grey-black. 1891Daily News 3 Dec. 5/1 Our wild cat..was a fine, powerful animal, grey brindled.
b. parasynthetic and instrumental, as grey-boughed, grey-breasted, grey-cheeked, grey-clad, grey-coloured, grey-crowned, grey-faced, grey-girdled, grey-gowned, grey-hooded, grey-moustached, grey-nebbed, grey-seeded, grey-slated, grey-sloped, grey-speckled, grey-streaken, grey-tinted, grey-winged.
1844W. Barnes Poems Dorset Dial. 122 The *grey-boughed withy's a-leanen lowly.
1752Sir J. Hill Hist. Anim. 480 The *grey-breasted and reddish-breasted Charadrius.
1893B. Torrey Footpath-Way 94 The evergreens immediately about the house were full of *gray-cheeked thrushes.
1895Century Mag. Aug. 499/1 *Gray-clad, white-bonneted sisters of charity.
1530Palsgr. 314/1 *Gray coloured as ones eyes be, vair. 1883Stevenson Treas. Isl. iii. xiii, Grey-coloured woods.
1852S. F. Baird in H. Stansbury Exped. Valley Gt. Salt Lake 317 (heading) Leucosticte Tephrocotis,..*Gray-crowned Finch. 1945Baker Austral. Lang. xii. 211 The Grey-crowned Babbler is known also as apostle-bird, [etc.].
1830M. Howitt in W. Howitt's Seasons (1837) 137 The *grey-faced mountain-sheep.
1821Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 9 *Grey-girdled eve, and morn of rosy hue.
1591Troub. Raigne K. John (1611) 50 *Gray-gown'd good face, coniure ye, Nere trust me for a groat.
1634Milton Comus 188 The *gray-hooded Ev'n Like a sad Votarist in Palmers weeds Rose from the hind⁓most wheels of Phœbus waine.
1866Howells Venet. Life xviii. 273 The *gray-moustached papa.
1870Morris Earthly Par. III. iv. 85 And o'er the wrack of Senlac field Full fed the *grey-nebbed raven wheeled.
Ibid. II. iii. 46 The long *grey-seeded grass.
1897J. C. Hodgson Hist. Northumbld. IV. 55 The old *grey-slated house.
1870Morris Earthly Par. II. iii. 506 That sad fight within the *grey-sloped vale.
1895A. Nutt in Meyer Voy. Bran I. 155 Steeds with *grey-speckled manes.
1854R. S. Surtees Handley Cross (1898) I. 148 *Grey-streaken locks.
1870M. Bridgman Ro. Lynne I. vii. 106 That's what makes life appear so dull and *gray-tinted to me.
1899Edin. Rev. Jan. 43 Her twin footprints are *grey-winged pigeons.
c. complemental, as grey-grown, grey-lit, grey-mouldering adjs.
1727–46Thomson Summer 225 The daw, The rook, and magpie, to the *grey-grown oaks..direct their lazy flight.
a1881Rossetti House of Life viii, Thine eyes *grey-lit in shadowing hair above.
1740Dyer Ruins Rome 33 Globose and huge, *Grey-mouldring Temples swell.
8. a. Special collocations, as grey area (see quot. 1968); grey band (see quot.); grey bark, a variety of Peruvian bark (see bark n.1 7); also attrib.; grey box, an Australian tree, esp. Eucalyptus moluccana; grey bread Sc., ‘bread made of rye; perhaps also, of oats’ (Jam.); grey cells colloq. = grey matter; grey cloth, unbleached cloth; grey eminence = éminence grise; grey-frieze, frieze of a grey colour; hence grey-friezed adj., made of grey frieze; grey goods (see quots.); grey groat, an emphatic equivalent of groat; also used as the type of something of little value (cf. brass farthing, brass n. 7); grey leaf = grey speck; greymail colloq. (U.S. Law) [after blackmail], (a ploy involving) a threat by the defence, esp. in a spy trial, to expose government secrets unless charges are dropped; grey market, a less extreme form of black market; grey matter, the grey-coloured matter of which the active part of the brain is composed; also fig.; grey meal, the refuse and sweepings of a meal-mill; dirty meal (Jam.); grey millet = graymill, gromwell (in Cassell 1882); grey oak, any of several American oaks, esp. Quercus coccinea or Q. borealis; grey oil, olive oil and lanolin containing mercury; grey-out Aeronaut., a less severe form of black-out; so grey-out v. intr., to suffer a ‘grey-out’; also greying-out vbl. n.; grey paper, ? an unbleached paper, used chiefly for wrapping (in some dialects now = brown paper); also, a grey-tinted drawing paper; grey parson (see quot.: cf. grey-coat(ed parson); grey pea (see pea); grey pine, either of two North American pines, Pinus banksiana or P. sabiniana; † grey plack Sc., a plack containing an alloy of silver; grey powder (see quot. 1866); also attrib.; grey russet (see quot. a 1825); grey scale (see quot. 1959); also attrib.; grey school (see quot.); grey slag (see quot.); grey sour, souring, in Bleaching, the process of immersing cloth in dilute acid; grey speck, a disease in oats caused by a manganese deficiency and characterized by specks on the leaf-blades; grey steep, a steep or bath used in the process of grey souring; grey stock (see quot. 1852, and cf. grizzle n.3); grey wethers (see quots.); grey willow, one of several willow trees or bushes with grey foliage or down, esp. Salix sericea or S. cinerea; grey wood (see quot. 1934).
1963Times 22 May 9/3 Within urban areas Mr. Wates said there were vast ‘*grey’ areas—he mentioned Fulham, Battersea and Islington—which could not be classified as slums but were in need of rebuilding. 1968Guardian 18 Mar. 8/1 The ‘grey areas’—the term now often used for parts of the country which are in poor or declining economic health, but not so dramatically stricken..[as] the development areas. 1970Daily Tel. 9 Apr. 21/4 Local authorities in administrative counties which include development areas and intermediate (‘grey’) areas will be able to borrow up to 50 p.c. of their capital finance needs from the Public Works Loans Board in 1970–1971.
1828Amer. Jrnl. Sci. & Arts XIV. 366 Saliferous Rock..Subdivisions.—..*Grey-band, the uppermost layers of bluish grey sandrock. 1863Dana Man. Geol. 232 Flagstone,—a gray, laminated quartzose sandstone, called ‘gray band’.
1837Penny Cycl. VII. 172/1 Of the pale [Cinchona] barks, three varieties are known in English commerce..2 *Gray, silver, or Huanuco bark. 1880C. R. Markham Peruv. Bark 228 At Huanuco, a town on the verge of the grey bark region.
1879F. von Mueller Eucalyptographia 1, The tree [sc. E. goniocalyx] passes among the woodmen as Blue and White Gum-tree, in the other case as *Grey or Bastard Box. 1884A. Nilson Timber Trees N.S.W. 136 Grey box, Eucalyptus saligna. Myrtaceæ. 1944F. Clune Red Heart 51 Colson noted the grey box and whitewood trees became sparser. 1969Age (Melbourne) 24 May 24/5 The estate is natural bushland crowded with grey box, [etc.].
1535Stewart Cron. Scot. III. 476 Wes nane that tyme that durst so hardy be..to mak him remeid, Or him support with ane byte of *gra breid. 1606Rollock 2 Thess. xvi. 201 He is the honester man that will..sit down with gray bread conquest by his labour, nor he who eates all dilicates with idlenesse.
1920A. Christie Mysterious Affair at Styles x. 226 ‘This affair must all be unravelled from within.’ He tapped his forehead. ‘These little *grey cells. It is ‘up to them’—as you say over here!’ 1960Wodehouse Jeeves in Offing iii. 38 You can't hold down an editorial post on an important London weekly paper without being fairly well fixed with the little grey cells.
1930Aberdeen Press & Jrnl. 1 Apr. 8/4 Plain *greycloth—that is, unbleached cloth, or cloth dyed in the piece. 1959Listener 9 July 46/2 The weavers manufacture, from the yarn, cloth in an unfinished state, known as grey cloth. 1968Grey cloth [see grey goods below].
1941A. Huxley (title) *Grey Eminence. 1945R. Hargreaves Enemy at Gate 151 Bismarck's ‘grey eminence’, the enigmatic Holstein. 1956F. Swinnerton Background with Chorus 78 The parts played by men not visibly figuring in ‘movements’—the grey eminences whose unpublished efforts give new ideas currency and new authors, or old authors, great places in literature. 1965Listener 21 Oct. 614/1 That grey eminence of British communism Mr Palme Dutt.
a1653Gouge Comm. Heb. xi. 37 In wearing shirts of hair, *Gray-freeze, or other like course raiments.
1650–66Wharton Wks. (1683) 350 The glittering Tissue, and the *gray-friz'd Gown.
1954Textile Terms & Defs. 21 *Grey goods, woven or knitted fabrics as they leave the loom or knitting machine, i.e. before any bleaching, dyeing, or finishing treatment has been given to them. 1968J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 231 Grey cloth or goods, woven fabric before it is dyed or printed.
1587Harrison England ii. ii. (1877) i. 63 Of thise portion poore saint Peter did neuer heare, of so much as one *graie grote. c1592Marlowe Jew of Malta iv. iv, I'll not leave him worth a grey groat. 1820Scott Abbot iv, I would have been his caution for a grey groat against salt water or fresh.
1928F. T. Brooks Plant Dis. ii. 15 On some alkaline soils oats cannot be grown profitably on account of a disease known as *Grey-leaf.
1973M. Pei Double Speak in Amer. 66 ‘*Graymail’..is summarized by psychiatry professor Ray Birdwhistell based on the principle ‘I will do something bad to you if you do something bad to me.’ 1978Washington Post 1 Nov. a14/2 A recent study by the Senate Intelligence Committee recommended substantial changes in court procedure to cope with this problem (as well as others that arise in ‘graymail’ cases) by permitting wider use of secret hearings. 1985N.Y. Times 1 Apr. a21/1 The indictment was originally blocked because the department wanted to be sure that no ‘greymail’—threats to expose national secrets—would be used in the defense.
1946Life 1 Apr. 32/1 In the Rocky Mountain region there is a *gray market in toilet paper. 1952Economist 15 Nov. 451/1 My own experience is that the effect of the grey or black market is grossly exaggerated by the Ministry's estimate of 50 per cent of home production. 1963Listener 14 Feb. 275/2 In the countryside there is a gigantic grey market where the collective farms get together to defeat the demands of the state [sc. Czechoslovakia]. 1969Times 16 July 9/6 It was suggested that instead of the grey market where a few doctors deliberately overprescribed [heroin] and addicts sold off their surplus supplies there would be a..black market.
1840G. Ellis Anat. 45 The *grey matter of the third ventricle entirely conceals the crus of the fornix. 1894A. Robertson Nuggets, etc. 33 These..thoughts rushed over the grey matter of Bill's brain, as the wind rushes through the tree-tops. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 673 Whether he does this by adding convolutions or piling up his gray matter we will leave for the present.
1647in Laird of Logan (1878) 578 [A man was called before the Presbytery for calling his minister's doctrines] Dust and *Gray Meal.
1697Rec. Early Hist. Boston (1880) VI. 8 From thence to another wallnut tree and so straight to a *gray oak. 1813H. Muhlenberg Catal. Plant. 87 Upland willow-oak, or gray oak. 1832D. J. Browne Sylva Amer. 261 The Gray Oak is found farther north than any other species in America. 1908N. L. Britton N. Amer. Trees 290 Gray Oak—Quercus borealis.
1908Practitioner Sept. 467 The use of *grey-oil in subcutaneous injections.
1945Reader's Digest May 43/2 Formerly a pilot had only two chances:..or go in all the way and turn sharply, incurring enough G to *grayout or blackout. 1946A. M. Low How Secrets Work 153 The first noticeable effect is a ‘grey-out’ due to a reduced pressure on the capillaries at the back of the eye. 1956J. E. Johnson Wing Leader iii. 44 The Spit protests and shudders, and when the blood drains from your eyes you ‘grey-out’. 1962W. Schirra in Into Orbit 46 When a man is pulling heavy Gs in the normal sitting position, the blood drains down from his head, and he can have a grey-out or a black-out.
1961New Scientist 25 May 457/3 At slightly lower g, the individual experiences *greying-out: there is an overall dimming of vision and loss of peripheral vision.
1549Bale Journ. & Serche of Leylande Pref. B i b, Thys stuffe [the contentes of two noble lybraryes] hath he occupyed in the stede of *graye paper. 1600Nashe Summer's Last Will B 4 An other that ranne in det..aboue foureteene thousand pound in lute strings and gray paper. 1878Ruskin Notes 50 The material used by Turner in his drawings on grey paper.
1784Sir J. Cullum Hist. Hawsted iii. 171 A *Grey parson, a layman, who hires the tithes of the parson.
1810F. A. Michaux Arbres I. 16 Pinus rupestris... *Grey pine.., dénomination donnée..en Canada. 1832D. J. Browne Sylva Amer. 240 In Nova Scotia and the state of Maine, where it is rare, it is called Scrub Pine, and in Canada, Gray Pine. 1908N. L. Britton N. Amer. Trees 37 This tree [sc. Pinus sabiniana], also called Gray pine..occurs locally in the foothill region of western California. 1923L. H. Bailey Cultivated Evergreens iii. 103 The gray pine, Pinus Banksiana, is found farther northward than any other American pine. 1956B. R. Morton Native Trees of Canada (ed. 5) 16 Banksian pine [is also called] grey pine.
1591Sc. Acts Jas. VI (1814) III. 526/2 For all vther allayed money, quhilk is subiect to refyning, as babeis, thre penny grottis, twelf penny grottis, and *gray plakkis.
1842C. Ridley Let. 4 Dec. (1958) ix. 111 Baby is not quite well. I consulted Sir John Fife, who gave him *grey powder. 1866Squire Comp. Med. Chest 18 Grey Powder. Hydrargyrum cum Creta... A mild mercurial. 1883D. J. Leech in Encycl. Brit. XVI. 34/2 Grey powder..consists..of mercury and chalk. 1897J. Hutchinson Archives Surg. VIII. No. 31. 220 The grey-powder pill..he regards as a tonic.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 162 A goune of a *graye russet. a1529Skelton E. Rummyng 54 In her furred flocket, And gray russet rocket. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Grey-russet, coarse cloth of a dull grey colour, commonly preceded by the epithet dandy.
1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 389/2 *Grey scale. 1957V. J. Kehoe Technique Film & T.V. Make-Up i. 23 (caption) The Gray Scale. Diagrammatic representation of gradation from white to black, the in-between shades being tones of gray. 1959W. S. Sharps Dict. Cinematogr. 101/1 Grey scale, a graduated range of tones extending from white to black, with intermediate greys consisting of intermixed white and black. 1961G. Millerson Technique Telev. Production iii. 45 (caption) Sample paint-cards and materials are compared on camera with a standard grey-scale chart. 1968Brit. Med. Bull. XXIV. 262/2 The grey scale is a graded series of densities from transparent (white) to black.
1804R. Graham Fisherm. Let. to Propriet. Fisheries Solway 8 (Jam.) Those too, it is probable, spawn sooner than the last and largest species, called the *Grey Scool, which appear in the Solway and rivers about the middle of July.
1853Ure Dict. Arts (ed. 4) II. 653 Those [lumps of partly-fused ore] which are so far agglutinated by the heat, as to be quite hard, and further known by their brightness, being picked out..They are called ‘*grey slags’.
1875J. Paton in Encycl. Brit. III. 816/2 *Gray Sour.
1844G. Dodd Textile Manuf. ii. 51 The process of ‘*grey souring’, in which the cloth passes through a machine..containing very dilute sulphuric acid.
1928Jrnl. Dept. Agric. S. Austral. XXXI. vii. 696 (title) *Grey speck (manganese deficiency) disease of oats... For many years the Grey Speck disease of oats has been known to occur on certain alkaline soils in Holland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. Ibid. 704 In the pots treated with nitrate of soda and cyanamide the Grey Speck symptoms were worst. 1929Ann. Appl. Biol. XVI. 497 It does not seem to have been recognised that the symptoms of the Grey Speck disease are essentially the symptoms of manganese deficiency. 1947Sci. News V. 88 Manganese is essential for healthy plant life. Its deficiency in soil..leads to plant diseases such as grey speck of oats.
1812–16J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 546 Bainbie, or *Gray Steep.
1793Misc. in Ann. Reg. 378 The bricks called *greystocks, for the outside of houses. 1852–61Archit. Publ. Soc. Dict., Grey stock, a brick made of common earth and thoroughly burnt in a close clamp; it is so called to distinguish it from the place brick on the one hand, and the red stock or kiln burnt brick on the other.
1794J. B. S. Morritt Let. 13 Nov. (1914) vi. 143, I saw a hill covered with stones and *grey-wethers, but could not make out many of the foundations he mentions. 1835Penny Cycl. III. 163/2 Detached oolitic sandstones of various sizes, known by the name of the Grey Wethers. 1863Lyell Antiq. Man 137 Great blocks of hard sandstone of the kind called in the south of England ‘grey-weathers’. 1895Murray's Devon 138/1 The Grey Wethers—2 circles [of stones] which nearly touch each other, like the Cornish ‘Hurlers’... These blocks are very like sheep, when seen from a little distance.
1813H. Muhlenberg Catal. Plant. 91 *Gray willow. 1861Trans. Ill. Agric. Soc. IV. 448 Mr. Overman has the Pennsylvania Gray Willow—the most rapid growing variety he has ever known. 1930J. E. Kirkwood N. Rocky Mt. Trees & Shrubs 88 The Gray Willow, so called in allusion to its covering of long gray hairs, is variously understood by various authors. 1951Dict. Gardening (R. Hort. Soc.) IV. 1852/1 S[alix] cinerea. Grey Willow...almost wholly covered with grey down.
1933Times Educ. Suppl. 15 Apr. 115/3 The former is faced with Indian silver *greywood. 1934Archit. Rev. LXXVI. 70/1 Sycamore has also been used in decorative work and furniture, dyed and known as ‘greywood’ or steamed and known as ‘weathered’ sycamore. 1952H. H. Saylor Dict. Archit. (1963) 79 Greywood,..used extensively in England for decorative woodwork and veneer.
b. In the names of animals, as grey bass, a sea-fish said to belong to the perch family, but to resemble the mullet in taste; grey-bird, a dial. name for (a) the thrush (Turdus musicus), (b) the linnet (Linota cannabina); grey crow, the Hooded Crow, Corvus cornix (cf. grey-back 4); grey dog, the Scottish hunting dog (Jam.); grey-drake, a species of Ephemera (cf. green-drake); grey duck, the gadwall; grey eagle U.S., ‘a young golden eagle’ (Funk's Stand. Dict.); grey falcon, (a) the hen-harrier (Circus cyaneus); (b) (see quot. 1847); grey-fin, a variety of trout found in the Tweed; grey-fish, (a) a local Sc. name for the coal-fish at a certain stage of its growth; (b) U.S. the common dogfish; grey fly, perhaps a dor-beetle; grey fowl, grouse when in its winter plumage; grey-fox (see quot. 1884–5); grey-jumper Austral. (see quot.); grey linnet, lizard (see linnet, lizard); grey lord = grey-fish; grey-midge Angling, the name of an artificial fly; grey mullet (see mullet); grey-necked a., epithet of a group of crows, esp. the Hooded Crow, Corvus cornix; grey nurse Austral. (see quot.); grey owl, parrot (see the ns.); grey pate (see quot.); grey perch U.S., the fresh-water drum (see drum n.1 11); † grey pie (see quot.); grey pike = horn-fish 2; grey plover, sandpiper, seal, shark, shrike, skate, snail, snapper (see the ns.); grey snake (see quots.); grey snipe, ‘the dowitcher in winter plumage’ (Webster 1897); grey squirrel (see squirrel); grey trout (see trout); grey whale, Rhachianectes glaucus; grey wolf, the common wolf, Canis lupus; also fig. (see quot. 1904).
1747H. Glasse Cookery xxi. 163 *Gray Bass comes with the Mullet.
1787Grose Prov. Gloss., *Grey-bird, a thrush. 1885Swainson Prov. Names Birds 64 Linnet (Linota cannabina)... Grey: or Grey bird (Westmoreland; North of Ireland). From its dull colouring in winter.
1837Macgillivray Hist. Brit. Birds I. 529 *Grey Crow.
1808J. Walker Ess. Nat. Hist. xiii. 475 Canis Scoticus venaticus. Gesn.—Scot. The *Grey Dog.
1787Best Angling (ed. 2) 26 *Grey-drake, Found in general where the Green-drake is, and in shape and dimensions perfectly the same, but almost quite another colour, being of a paler and more livid yellow. 1884[see drake1 4].
1885Swainson Prov. Names Birds 157 Gadwall..*Grey duck. 1688*Grey Eagle [see eagle 1 b].
1688R. Holme Armoury ii. xi. 233/1 The *Grey Falcon..The whole Body..is..Cinereous, tending to blew. 1802G. Montagu Ornith. Dict. 230 Grey Falcon. A name for the Hen Harrier. 1847Craig, Grey-falcon, the common or Peregrine Falcon.
1847T. T. Stoddart Angler's Comp. 210 The *grey-fin or bull-trout smolt. 1923W. A. Herdman Founders Oceanogr. 310 People..are prejudiced against ‘dog-fish’, so the [United States] Bureau [of Fisheries] altered the name of the latter to ‘gray-fish’.
1793Statist. Acc. Scot., Argylesh. VIII. 92 A species of fish taken on this coast, which goes by the general name of *Grey fish. 1848Life Normandy (1863) I. 283 It was some time before I knew that stainloch, grey-fish, seath, cudding, and poddly, were all one fish at different ages.
1637Milton Lycidas 27 What time the *gray fly winds her sultry horn. 1752Hill Hist. Anim. 31 The grey Fly or trumpet Fly. 1864Thoreau Cape Cod vii. (1894) 167 Probably he would not hear much of the ‘gray-fly’ on his way to Virginia.
1815Scott Guy M. xxii, And for the moor-fowl, or the *grey-fowl, they lie as thick as doos in a dooket. 1887Pall Mall G. 26 Nov. 5/1 In the full pride of the steely winter plumage the November grouse or grey-fowl seems to revel in conscious ability to outwit all enemies.
1781Pennant Hist. Quadrup. I. 241 *Grey fox. 1884–5Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888) V. 411 The well-known species, the Gray Fox V[ulpes] cinereo-argentatus, shares the characters of the coast fox, but is larger.
1898Morris Austral English, *Grey-jumper, name given to an Australian genus of sparrow-like birds, of which the only species is Struthidea cinerea, Gould.
1698Martin Voy. St. Kilda 30 The coast of St. Kilda, and the lesser Isles, are plentifully furnished with variety of..Cod, Ling..Turbat, *Graylords, Sythes. 1836Yarrell Brit. Fishes II. 170 Among the Scotch islands the Coal-fish is called..Grey-Lord.
1799G. Smith Laboratory II. 311 *Grey-midge or gnat.
1866R. C. Beavan in Intell. Observ. No. 50. 104 Corvus splendens (Viellot), the ‘*Grey-necked Crow’ of some. 1894R. B. Sharpe Handbk. Birds Gt. Brit. I. 12 Of the grey-necked section our Hooded Crow is the most familiar species.
1898Morris Austral English, *Grey Nurse, a New South Wales name for a species of Shark, Odontaspis americanus, Mitchell, family Lamnidæ, which is not confined to Australasia. 1917Chambers's Jrnl. Sept. 589/2 The gray nurse, like the white shark, is noted for its daring ferocity. 1969Man (Austral.) Mar. 12/2 There's even been grey nurse hooked here, and a blue marlin that had been hunted over from the deep-sea beds.
1766Pennant Zool. (1768) II. 304 The young bird [goldfinch] before it moults, is grey on the head; and hence it is termed by the bird-catchers a *grey pate.
1688R. Holme Armoury ii. xi. 235/1 The Bucher Bird, or Shrike..This Bird is of some called..a *Grey Pie.
1863J. G. Wood Nat. Hist. III. 134 The *Grey Snake of Jamaica (Dromicus ater). 1884–5Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888) III. 379 The genus Diemenia includes several Australian forms..The gray-snake D. reticulata..is uniformly gray above and greenish below.
1870Game Laws Penn. in Fur, Fin & Feather (1872) 120 No person shall kill, capture, take..any *gray snipe.
1860Merc. Marine Mag. VII. 213 The California *Grey Whale. 1883G. B. Goode Rev. Fish. Indust. U.S. 62 The Pacific gray-whale, or devil-fish, Rhachianectes glaucus.
1814Lewis & Clark Hist. Exped. Missouri (1815) I. 206 We caught..a large *gray wolf. 1831J. M. Peck Guide Emigrants 162 The large grey wolf, or canis lupus of Linneus, is not very plenty. 1880Harper's Mag. July 171/1 You will find bear and the great gray wolf..in the wilderness. 1904Grand Rapids Even. Press 8 June 4 In plain words, a gray wolf, in Chicago phraseology, is a professional grafter. 1936D. McCowan Anim. Canad. Rockies iii. 30 The grey wolf, also known as timber wolf and formerly as buffalo wolf, is grey in colour with a liberal sprinkling of black and brown in the coat. 1964E. P. Walker et al. Mammals of World II. 1152/1 Two species of wolves are recognized: C. lupus, the gray or timber wolf, and C. niger, the red wolf.
c. In the names of minerals, etc., as grey antimony (see antimony 2); grey (cast) iron, cast iron that has a grey fracture and contains most of its carbon in the form of flakes of graphite; grey cobalt (see cobalt 1 b); grey copper (ore), tetrahedrite; grey ore, chalcocite; grey oxide, ‘black-turpeth’ (Cent. Dict.); grey tin, a grey powdery allotrope of tin, to which ordinary (white) tin is converted at low temperatures; so grey modification.
1802Phil. Mag. XII. 28 By increasing the dose of carbon you increase the fusibility, and it passes at length into the state of *gray cast iron. 1824T. Tredgold Pract. Ess. Strength of Cast Iron (ed. 2) i. 7 Gray cast-iron is used for artillery, and is sometimes called gun-metal. 1880Encycl. Brit. XIII. 281/2 A coarse-grained crystalline structure results, the product being then termed grey cast iron. 1967Times Rev. Industry Mar. 76/1 High production costs amounting to over {pstlg}98 per ton of grey cast iron.
1839Ure Dict. Arts 301 *Gray cobalt..is a compound of cobalt with iron, arsenic, sulphur, and nickel.
1836Macgillivray tr. Humboldt's Trav. xxvi. 396 Most of it is obtained from sulphuretted silver, arsenical *gray-copper [etc.]. 1770Cronstedt's Min. 192 Mineralized..with sulphur alone..Grey copper-ore.
1665D. Dudley Mettallum Martis 47 The *Gray Iron..is most fined, and more sufficient to make Bar-Iron with, and tough Iron to make Ordnance, or any Cast Vessels, being it is..more malliable and tough, then the other two sorts. 1911Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 28 Apr. 1/6 Fire..destroyed the blacksmith and forging shop, the machine shops and the Grey iron and brass founders. 1955Times 15 July 2/6 Qualified Metallurgist preferably with experience with malleable and grey iron. 1965Economist 23 Oct. p. xxii/2 Even a quick look at the processes of grey-iron castings—the type of iron used for the bulk of auto castings—shows up the fundamental differences.
[1879Jrnl. Chem. Soc. XXXVI. 888 The grey modification of tin was found to be electronegative towards ordinary tin.] 1911Encycl. Brit. XXIX. 996/2 When exposed for sufficient time to very low temperatures (to - 39°C for 14 hours), tin becomes so brittle that it falls into a grey powder, termed the *grey modification.
1729Woodward Nat. Hist. Fossils 181 A grey Marcasite..Another, very like the fore⁓going. It consists mainly of Sulphur and Arsenick, and seems to hold a little Bismuth. The Miners call this *Grey-Ore. From the Duke of Somerset's Works..Cumberland. 1809A. Henry Trav. 212, I found several veins of copper-ore, of that kind which the miners call gray ore. 1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Gray ore (Corn.), copper-glance.
1886Jrnl. Chem. Soc. L. 124 The author concludes that only the following allotropic modifications may be regarded as different:—*Grey tin..; rhombic tin..; and tetragonal tin. 1933Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XXXVII. 540 Tin shows a maximum ductility at about 100°C., and becomes increasingly brittle at lower temperatures, until, at 18°C., the change to its allotropic form, ‘grey tin’, commences. 1950N. V. Sidgwick Chem. Elements I. 552 The change from white to grey tin at low temperatures is very slow. 1965Phillips & Williams Inorg. Chem. I. iii. 67 The transition of diamond to graphite, which involves a profound change of structure, requires a total energy change per atom of as little as 0·02 eV as does the change of white to grey tin.
B. n.
1. a. Grey material or clothing.
c1230Hali Meid. 43 Ah under hwit oðer blac & ase wel vnder grei as under grene & gra ha [Pride] lukeð iþe heorte. c1530Crt. of Love 1096 O why be som so sorry and so sad, Complaining thus in blak and whyte and gray? Freres they ben, and monkes, in good fay. c1590Greene Fr. Bacon iii. 69 Proportiond as was Paris, when, in grey, He courted Œnon in the vale by Troy. 1618Naworth Househ. Bks. (Surtees) 100, v. yards of gray for Creak, at 16d a yard. 1640tr. Verdere's Rom. Rom. iii. 54 He espied a young Hermit in a long Gown of gray. 1832G. Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. 293 A blind old man, dressed in gray.
b. techn. Unbleached material; spec. see quot. 1884. (Cf. grey-back 6.) Also phr. in the grey. (Cf. grey cloth, grey goods in sense A. 8.)
1860S. Jubb Hist. Shoddy-Trade 40 Short Ends were sold to the merchants..in the grey. 1884W. A. Harris Dict. Insur. Chem. (1890) 49 The greys' used under the pieces which were being printed were used until they had become..loaded with colour. 1891Labour Commission Gloss., The grey is a term used in the cotton and worsted trade to describe pieces of yarn or ‘slubbing’ as they come from the looms before going through any process of dyeing or finishing. 1929Times 7 Feb. 9/3 There were thousands of piece goods coming into this country ‘in the grey’ to be dyed here.
attrib.1844G. Dodd Textile Manuf. ii. 48 The cotton-cloth—is brought to the bleach-works, in the ‘grey’ state.
c. The uniform of the Southern troops in the American Civil War. U.S.
1863Rebellion Rec. V. ii. 72 An Irishman of the Seventeenth New-York came up to the General,..driving three prisoners in gray before him. 1866J. C. Gregg Life in Army xviii. 172 They were refused admission..on the ground of their uniform; when if they had been dressed in rebel gray..no doubt they would have met with a warm welcome. 1886F. C. Baylor On Both Sides II. viii. 429 A military society composed of men who had worn the gray. 1948Realty & Building 15 May 11/2 Colonel John was a Johnny Reb who delighted in telling of the exploits of the boys in gray.
d. pl. Grey flannel trousers. Also (colloq.) greyers [see -er6].
1900J. S. Farmer Public School Word-Bk. 102 Greyers, (Harrow) Grey flannel trousers. 1923Daily Mail 27 June 8 The jacket and waistcoat may be worn with ‘greyers’ or white flannel trousers, thus providing all the sports clothes the average man needs. 1932A. J. Worrall Eng. Idioms 22 I'll wear my greys for tennis to-day as the ground is rather slippery. 1948D. W. Ballantyne Cunninghams (1963) ii. xxiii. 226 A couple of..boys, wearing sports coats, greys, and open-necked white shirts.
†2. spec. Grey fur; usually understood to be of badger skin. (Cf. sense 6, also gra gro, and ON. gráskinn, grávara.) Obs.
a1200–c 1314 [see faw a. 2]. a1400Sir Perc. 2272 And made the lady in to ga, In graye and in grene. 1436Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 171 Peltre-ware, and grey, pych, terre [etc.]. a1450Knt. de la Tour (1868) 9 A mantell furred with graie. 1460Lybeaus Disc. 839 A veluwet mantyll gay, Pelured wyth grys and gray. c1483Caxton Dialogues (E.E.T.S.) 46/21 A pylche of graye [F. vne pelice de vaire]. 1525Ld. Berners Froiss. II. ccii. [cxcviii.] 622 Gownes of sylke furred with Myneuere and gray. 1702J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. i. iii. ii. (1707) 256 Of Furrs, Filches, Grays, Jennets..40 Skins in a Timber.
3. A grey or subdued light; the cold, sunless light of the morning or evening twilight; esp. in phr. the grey of the morning.
1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. v. 19 Yon gray is not the mornings eye. 1599― Much Ado v. iii. 27 The gentle day..Dapples the drowsie East with spots of grey. 1674–91Ray S. & E.C. Words 101 The Gray of the Morning; Break of day, and from thence till it be clear light. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. ii. (1840) 20 Our ship..was surprised in the grey of the morning. 1844Ld. Houghton Palm Leaves 138, I saw a Shape dark-lined against the gray. 1845Longfellow To Driving Cloud 30 In the gray of the day-break. 1884W. C. Smith Kildrostan 79 The sober grey of our dim Highland glens. 1892W. Pike North. Canada 78 The first grey of dawn being the favourite time of attack.
4. a. Grey colour. In pl. = shades of grey colour. Also fig.
1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 753 Various shades of grey may be obtained. 1873Symonds Gr. Poets xii. 404 The colour of the olive tree is delicate. Its pearly greys and softened greens in no wise interfere with the lustre. 1892Zangwill Childr. Ghetto I. 16 To blur the vivid tints of the East into the uniform gray of English middle-class life. a1907F. J. Thompson Works (1913) III. 218 The Englishman says, ‘Black's black—furieusement black; and white's white—furieusement white.’ De Quincey saw many blacks, many whites, multitudinous greys. 1923J. Hergesheimer Bright Shawl 21 He saw..the good on one side facing the bad on the other. There was no mingling of the ranks, no grey; simply, conveniently, black and white. 1948Amer. Sociol. Rev. June 284 To disclose the blacks and imply the whites of a quality scale, the middle grays being largely lost.
b. with word prefixed, indicating some particular shade of grey, as dark grey, duffel grey, goose grey, lead grey.
a1693Aubrey Lives, Sir W. Petty (1898) II. 145 His eies are a kind of goose-grey. 1796Stedman Surinam xvii. 31 Those [parrots]..are rather of a lead-grey. 1817T. L. Peacock Melincourt xxviii, Waistcoats of a duffel gray.
c. Gunmaking. A grey spot indicating a flaw.
1881Greener Gun 223 Before the introduction of the new mode of making gun-iron, it was a most difficult matter to obtain English barrels free from greys.
d. in the grey: unburnished.
1860Sir E. Beckett Clocks & Watches (ed. 4) 309 Earnshaw was the first watchmaker who had sense enough to set at defiance the vulgar and ignorant prejudice for ‘high finish’ of the non-acting surfaces, and to leave them ‘in the grey’, as it is called.
e. A grey-coloured pigment; usually with defining word prefixed, as aniline grey, Payne's grey, etc.
1888Daily News 9 Aug. 5/2 Naples yellow, Payne's grey, gamboge.
5.
†a. A grey-haired person, an old man. Obs.
1374Chaucer Troylus iv. 99 (127) Tellyng his tale alwey, þis olde Greye, Humble in speche. a1420Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 134 ‘I’, quod this olde grey, ‘Am here’. 1513Douglas æneis ii. ix. 6 The ald gray, all for nocht, to him tays His hawbrek.
b. A white-skinned person. U.S. Black slang. Cf. adj. 6 e.
1960Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 228 Gray, (derog.) a white person. 1963in Amer. Speech (1964) XXXIX. 60 Beyond the ears of the greys. 1965O. Harrington in J. H. Clarke Harlem 90 The year was 1936, a bad year in most everybody's book. Ellis the cabdriver used to say that even the grays downtown were having it rough. 1966Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. 1964 xlii. 31 Caucasian..gray.
c. A dull, anonymous, or ‘faceless’ person. Cf. adj. 5 b.
1967Observer 17 Dec. 25/1 Let them..remember that many of the ‘grey’ citizens have been working for forty years or more for the forgiveness of enemies... The ‘greys’ would appreciate the co-operation of the bright ones in such activities. 1969Gandalf's Garden vi. 11/1 Greys, those people whose minds have ossified and who have lost the wonder of living and the will to learn what it's all about. 1969It 4–17 July 3/3 The whole scene is under the thumbs of the greys. Pretty well everywhere today the dead men, the square men and the greys are running things, calling the tune.
†6. A badger. Obs. (Cf. sense 2.)
α1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) VI. 205 Beverlay..the place or lake of bevers or of grayes. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 154 Sheepe and Goates..woulde soone be destroied by Woolfes, Foxes, Grayes, and other vermine. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 26 Of the Badger, other⁓wise called a Brocke, a Gray, or a Bauson. 1637B. Jonson Sad Sheph. ii. ii, This fine Smooth Bawsons Cub, the young Grice of a Gray. 1665in Sussex Archæol. Collect. XIV. 247 To Catlin's maide for a Gray's hed {pstlg}0 1s. 0d. 1686R. Blome Gentl. Recreat. ii. 90 A Badger is known by several other Names, as a Gray, a Brock, [etc.].
β1413–22Hunting Rhymes in Rel. Ant. I. 149 And .iij. other bestis..That ben neyther of venery ne chace..The grey is one therof with hyse slepy pace. 1423Jas. I Kingis Quair clvi, There sawe I..the holsum grey for hortis. 1538Leland Itin. I. 113 There is a mighty stronge and usid Borow for Greys or Foxes. 1576Turberv. Venerie iii. 7 And kill at force, hart, hind, bucke, doe, foxe, grey and euery chace. 1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 701 The Brocke or Badger, or as some call him the Grey, by reason of his colour.
7. A grey horse. Chiefly pl. and in phr. a pair of greys.
[1639: cf. dapple-grey b.] 1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Quality (1809) IV. 159 A sumptuous coach proudly drawn by six German greys. 1789Gibbon Autobiogr. (1896) 162 An handsome set of bays or greys. 1810Sporting Mag. XXXV. 188 Several of the Four-in-hand Club..still adhere to their greys. 1813Hogg Queen's Wake 149 When good Earl Walter rode the ring Upon his mettled gray. 1842Macaulay Ess., Fredk. Gt., His English grey carried him many miles from the field. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair xxxvii, Mrs. Mantrap..drives her greys in the Park. 1861G. J. Whyte-Melville Mkt. Harb. 67 Leisure to..watch the roan putting on flesh, and the departure of the grey's cough.
8. pl. (in full Scots Greys). A regiment of dragoons raised in 1681 and called the Royal Regiment of Dragoons, now the 2nd Dragoons. rare in sing.
The regiment formerly wore a uniform of grey cloth. They are now mounted chiefly on grey chargers.
1751Phil. Trans. XLVII. xxviii. 194 The Greys were cantoon'd in the village of Vucht. 1753Scots Mag. June 306/1 A troop of Scots Greys arrived. 1875Kinglake Crimea V. i. (1877) 122 The Inniskillinger and the Grey. 1881Tennyson Charge Heavy Brigade iii, Brave Inniskillens and Greys Whirling their sabres in circles of light! 1895Sir E. Wood Cavalry Waterloo Campaign v. 138 As the Scots Greys passed through the 92nd Regiment, each corps mutually cheered the other.
9. As a name for various animals.
†a. The gadwall, Anas strepera. Obs.
‘The synonym ‘Gray’, given by Willughby and Ray, is doubtless derived from the general colour of the species’ (Newton).
1678Ray Willughby's Ornith. 374 The Gadwall or Gray.
b. A kind of fish; ? a grilse.
1686Ray Willughby's Ichthyogr. i. xii. 23 Salmo griseus. The Gray. 1740R. Brookes Art of Angling i. v. 25 The Grey I take to be the same kind of Fish which in Scotland they call the Grey-Lord. In Magnitude it differs but little from the Salmon, but the Shape is very unlike..The body is everywhere stain'd with Grey or Ash-colour'd Spots. 1769Pennant Zool. III. 248 The Grey..We are uncertain whether this is not a meer variety of the salmon; but on the authority of Mr. Ray we describe them separate. 1818Todd, Gray, a kind of salmon, having a gray back and sides; probably the same as the gilse.
c. A species of moth (see quot.).
1866E. Newman Brit. Butterf. & Moths 391 The Gray. (Dianthœcia cæsia.)
d. California grey, the grey whale (see A. 8 b).
1884–5Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888) V. 197 The California gray.
10. slang. (See quot.) [Perh. alluding to ‘a pair of greys’ (sense 7).]
1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Gray, a half-penny, or other coin, having two heads or two tails, and fabricated for the use of gamblers. 1828G. Smeeton Doings in Lond. 40 Breslaw could never have done more upon cards than he could do with a pair of ‘grays’. 1851in Mayhew Lond. Labour II. 120. 1868 Temple Bar XXIV. 539 The way they do it is to have a penny with two heads or two tails on it, which they call a ‘grey’.
†11. attrib. and Comb. (sense 2 only) as grey merchant; grey cloak, an alderman who has ‘passed the Chair’; greywork, furriery; grey-worker, a furrier. Obs.
c1483Caxton Dialogues (E.E.T.S.) 2/36 Of makers of greywerke. Ibid. 46/19 Vedast the graywerker Solde whiler to my lady A pylche of graye. 1542Act 33 Hen. VIII c. 2. in Bolton Stat. Irel. (1621) 185 An Act for gray Merchants. 1557Order of Hospitalls B ij b, xiiij of them to be Aldermen..vj Graye clokes and viij callabre. Ibid. B iij, iij Alderman, whereof one shal be a graycloke.
Add:[A.] [8.] [a.] grey economy, that sector of an economic system which is conducted by means of informal commercial activity unaccounted for in official statistics.
1983Economist 2 Apr. 70/3 Street vendors..have sprouted lately as an above-ground *grey economy. Their goods—clothes, watches, jewellery—are not stolen, but bought wholesale. 1989National Inst. Econ. Rev. May 41/1 In order to obtain some idea of the ‘grey economy’ in the clothing industry, we also visited a number of very small clothing ‘workshops’ in Britain.
▸ S. Afr. Of a residential area: inhabited without segregation by people of differing ethnic backgrounds. Cf. grey area n. 2.
1978Sunday Times (Johannesburg) 29 Oct. 16/6 There should be black cities where provision is made for the blacks who do not come from the nearby homelands, as well as for blacks where ethnic differences do not play such an important role—the ‘grey cities’. 1986Eastern Province Herald (Port Elizabeth) 14 Nov. 6 Three inner-city areas of Johannesburg have gone ‘grey’. 1987New Nation (Johannesburg) 21 May 7 Rand Afrikaans University researchers have listed 13 ‘grey’ suburbs in cities across SA. 1993Weekly Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 5 Nov. 18 The banks' refusal to lend in areas which are going ‘grey’..will be one of the most critical problems facing a new government.
▸ orig. U.S. (A name for) a member of any of various supposed species of grey-skinned, humanoid, extraterrestrial beings. Usu. in pl.
[1987Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 22 Mar. 6 c, Skeptics who balk at the notion of flying saucers and little gray men are called closed-minded.] 1989UFO Sept.–Oct. 37/1 The ETs I've experienced have exhibited a wide range of forms. I have had no contact with the ‘greys’ (from Zeta Reticulum), and have been told that I will not need to. 1990Omni Dec. 97/2 So-called because of their pallid, dolphinlike skin and complexion. The most commonly reported alien humanoid entities, Grays are typically described as dwarfish in stature with oversized, fetuslike heads; large, slanted black eyes; and scrawny limbs. 1993N.Y. Times 21 Nov. i. 41/1 Granville Angell denounced the way some people have begun to refer to visitors from outer space as ‘grays’, though most of those sighted have been that color. 1998E. Davis TechGnosis (1999) viii. 237 Contemporary contactees also tell gruesome tales about impassive, almond-eyed, and vaguely malevolent Grays more interested in human flesh than language.
▸ grey flannel suit n. colloq. (also with capital initials) a business suit, seen as variously suggestive of the wearer's conservative, bureaucratic, or conformist attitudes, or lack of individuality; usu. attrib. and in man in a grey flannel suit; cf. grey suit n. at Additions, men in grey suits n. at man n.1 Phrases 3c, suit n. Additions.
1955S. Wilson (title) The man in the *gray flannel suit. 1956Science 16 Mar. 476/3 (advt.) Medical Writer. ‘Gray Flannel Suit’ type, 25-35 years old with imagination, science background, and talent for concise, effective prose. 1985C. Jencks Mod. Movement in Archit. (ed. 2) viii. 302 To fill out this composite portrait, he was characterized as a technician rather than a workman, a specialist rather than a ‘Universal Man’, a member of a committee rather than an entrepreneur, and a man in a ‘Grey Flannel Suit’. 1995Amer. Hist. Rev. 100968/2 Under Kennedy, a sense of possibilities and of freedom were transferred to the re-experiencing of the body (dance, happening, sexuality), as if youth had finally rid themselves of the dull man with the grey flannel suit.
▸ grey literature n. documentary material which is not commercially published or publicly available, such as technical reports or internal business documents.
1975Q. Rev. Biol. 50 346/1 Many references are from the soft or *grey literature, such as progress reports and meeting summaries. 1995Daily Tel. 12 Jan. 18/5 My company specializes in the acquisition and delivery of what scientists and technologists call ‘grey literature’—technical reports and other documents that cannot be obtained through bookshops. 1998Science (Electronic ed.) 14 Aug. The site includes the act itself and related notices as well as a huge database of ‘gray literature’ on U.S. archaeological sites.
▸ Grey Panther n.after Black Panther n. at black adj. Special uses 3 orig. U.S. (a) (in pl.) an organization which seeks to promote the interests and rights of the elderly; (in sing.) a member of such an organization; (b) (chiefly in form grey panther) an elderly person considered as a member of a group wielding social, political, or economic influence.
1972N.Y. Times 21 May 68/5 Miss Kuhn..has founded a movement called the *Gray Panthers. Its goal: to liberate the old. 1991New Age Nov. 79/1 The life story of the founder of the elders-empowerment group the Gray Panthers. 1996Economist 27 Jan. (Econ. of Ageing Suppl.) 5/2 Germany has a few grey panthers stalking the land, but to little effect. 2001Western Daily Press (Electronic ed.) 18 June Overnight you go from being a worker with all the status that implies to being a wrinkly, a senior, a grey panther, a crumbly, a golden oldie, a battling granny (even if your union has not been blessed with issue) and a pensioner.
▸ grey power n.after black power n. at black adj. Special uses 3 the political or economic power of elderly people collectively.
1975H. L. Wilensky Welfare State & Equality ii. 26 The political pressure for expansion of these programmes, however, is only partly their own ‘*gray power’. 1986Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 28 Dec. 23/1 Politicians recently have re-assessed the formidable ‘grey power’ of elderly citizens in terms of the ballot box. 2000Independent 17 Apr. (Monday Review Suppl.) 3/3 Today is Labour's black Monday when grey power reasserts itself as older and wiser heads realise that long-term savings based on real profits in the real economy should be nurtured and encouraged.
▸ grey suit n. colloq. (also with capital initials) an executive, managerial, or bureaucratic figure whose conventional formal dress is perceived as variously suggestive of a conservative attitude, a lack of individuality, or (esp. in political contexts) the anonymous exercise of power; usu. in pl.; cf. grey flannel suit n. at Additions, men in grey suits n. at man n.1 Phrases 3c, suit n. Additions.
1981Washington Post 20 Jan. b4/5 *Gray suits crowded around former Texas Gov. John Connally and Henry Kissinger. 1994Daily Tel. 12 Nov. (Weekend Suppl.) 44/7 A doctor reported that in five years his hospital increased the number of offices occupied by Grey Suits from three to 26. 1997Sun 21 Aug. 51/5 Surely the grey suits who plan the programme running-order can see the sense in scheduling the football before the second-rate film.
▸ grey water n. Ecol. domestic waste water other than that from toilets, esp. as considered sufficiently lightly polluted for recycling or re-use (cf. black water n.).
1970Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 67 874 Additionally, the concept of dividing ‘black-water’ and ‘*gray-water’ waste systems has been suggested for overall community use. 1974J. H. T. Winneberger Man. Grey Water Treatm. Practice i. 3 One can only question why body waste..should be co-mingled with so-called ‘grey water’ from baths, sinks and appliances... Among the first to recognize the advantage of separating grey water from toilet ‘black waste’ were the French. 1992Harrowsmith Oct. 106 Another system gathers and purifies rainwater, then recycles the greywater and converts solid waste into compost for the rooftop greenhouse. 2000Plumbing Mag. (Inst. of Plumbing) May–June 6/4 The recycling and re-use of grey water will become a practical reality. The industry's advice will be sought on the ‘greening’ of buildings and elsewhere.
▪ II. grey, v.|greɪ|
Also gray.
[f. grey a.]
1. intr. To become or grow grey.
13..Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 527 Al grayes þe gres, þat grene watz ere. 1878Scribner's Mag. XVI. 332/2 The autumn seared and browned and grayed at last into winter. 1893Strand Mag. VI. 283/2 The night began to grey. 1896Crockett Grey Man v. 32 It was already greying for the dawn.
2. trans. To make grey.
1879Tinsley's Mag. XXIV. 325 As some cloud-shadow swept across the valley, and grayed the greens. 1887Harper's Mag. Aug. 454 The crumbling fence is grayed By the slow-creeping lichen.
3.
†a. intr. Of a person: To become grey.
b. trans. To cause (a person's hair) to become grey.
a1618Sylvester Mem. Mortal. ii. xxix, In learning Socrates lives, grayes, and dyes. 1633Shirley Bird in Cage v. i. I 4 b, Canst thou..change but the complexion of one Hayre? Yet thou hast gray'd a thousand. 1810Assoc. Minstrels 146 Ah tell me not thy locks are greyed. 1886E. C. G. Murray Yng. Widows 29 Time may have grayed their hair. 1899Fiona Macleod Dominion Dreams 175 He is a man whose hair has been greyed by years and sorrow.
4. Photography.
a. trans. To give a dull surface to (glass): see quot. 1868.
b. To give a mezzotint effect to (a photograph) by covering the negative, during printing, with such glass.
c. intr. for refl. To assume a grey tint.
1868M. C. Lea Photogr. iv. 45 The glass should, in fact, not be ground at all, but only ‘grayed’, that is, have its surface removed by rubbing with fine emery powder. 1891Anthony's Photogr. Bull. IV. 251 The highest lights must not be allowed to ‘gray’ over.
Hence greyed |greɪd| ppl. a., ˈgreying vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1819G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 327 The light..may be lessened by placing..a piece of fine grayed glass between the object and the reflecting mirror. 1863W. Lancaster Praeterita 36 Singing under greying blue. 1890Anthony's Photogr. Bull. III. 429 No print with grayed background..should be accepted. 1891G. Meredith One of our Conq. I. xiv. 280 Barmby..quitted the forepart of the vessel at the first greying. 1895Hardy in Harper's Mag. Apr. 730 His graying hair was curly. 1898Zangwill Dreamers Ghetto xiii. 429 Girls footing it gleefully in the greying light.
▸ greyed-out adj. displayed in grey or faint tones, esp. on a computer screen; (also) lacking distinctiveness or individuality.
1981W. C. Becker & D. W. Carnine in S. W. Bijou & R. Ruiz Behavior Modification vi. 157 Sites were counted if the number of *grayedout effects was 50% or less. 1986I. Feldman All of us Here 23 We're not some grayed-out weed-choked local stop. 1987Proc. Human Factors Soc. 31st Ann. Meeting I. 722 A set of menu items is presented to the user, with temporarily unavailable items listed in a lighter, ‘grayed-out’ font. 1994CD-ROM World Apr. 94/1 Most of the time, fielding is as simple as steering the computer-selected player to the grayed-out area. 2000N.Y. Rev. Bks. 9 Mar. 30/4 The ‘deprivation’ of those early studies was extreme deprivation—grayed-out environments and terry-cloth mothers that don't occur in ‘real life’.
▸ grey out v. (b) trans. (freq. in pass.), to cause to change from an intense shade to a faint one, esp. from black to grey; to display (something, esp. a menu item or icon on a computer screen) faintly, esp. as a way of indicating that the option it represents is not available; (also) to reduce the distinctiveness or individuality of (something).
1981W. C. Becker & D. W. Carnine in S. W. Bijou & R. Ruiz Behavior Modification vi. 156 A more conservative procedure would not gray out the effects in the heavy outlined boxes. 1986New Yorker 10 Feb. 109/1 Everything has been grayed out: the bureaucrats wear suits that are as alike as prison uniforms. 1988MacWeek (Nexis) 11 Oct. 18 In a previous column, we discussed ways to disable buttons by manually graying out a paint text representation of the button name using the paint bucket, character by character. 1992UnixWorld Apr. 76/2 Buttons and menu options are grayed-out automatically when their callbacks are disabled. 1999C. Brookmyre One Fine Day in Middle of Night (2000) 218 Even the moral obligation aspect was greyed-out. If the opportunity arose, did he risk all in a heroic attempt to rescue the others, or did he have a greater duty to Annette and their unborn child. |