Grayness

Gray  (gr), Asa 1810-1888.

American botanist who greatly enlarged and improved the description of North American flora and was the chief American advocate of Charles Darwin's theories.

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Gray, Robert 1755-1806.

American explorer who twice circumnavigated the globe (1787-1790 and 1790-1793) and discovered Grays Harbor and the Columbia River (1792).

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Gray, Thomas 1716-1771.

British poet considered a forerunner of English romanticism. His most famous work is Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751).

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gray ¹ also grey  (gr)

adj. gray·er also grey·er, gray·est also grey·est

1. Of or relating to an achromatic color of any lightness between the extremes of black and white.

2.

a. Dull or dark: a gray, rainy afternoon.

b. Lacking in cheer; gloomy: a gray mood.

3.

a. Having gray hair; hoary.

b. Old or venerable.

4. Intermediate in character or position, as with regard to a subjective matter: the gray area between their differing opinions on the film's morality.

n.

1. An achromatic color of any lightness between the extremes of black and white.

2. An object or animal of the color gray.

3. often Gray

a. A member of the Confederate Army in the Civil War.

b. The Confederate Army.

v. grayed also greyed, gray·ing also grey·ing, grays also greys

v.tr.

To make gray.

v.intr.

1. To become gray.

2.

a. To become old; age.

b. To include a large or increasing proportion of older people: "Federal food programs can't keep up with the nation's rapidly graying population" (Michael J. McCarthy).

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[Middle English grei, from Old English grg.]

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grayly adj.

grayness n.

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gray ²  (gr)

n. Abbr. Gy

The SI unit for the energy absorbed from ionizing radiation, equal to one joule per kilogram.

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[After Louis Harold Gray (1905-1965), British radiobiologist.]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

grayness - a neutral achromatic color midway between white and black gray, greyness, grey achromatic color, achromatic colour - a color lacking hue; white or grey or black ash gray, ash grey, silver gray, silver grey, silver - a light shade of grey charcoal gray, charcoal grey, oxford gray, oxford grey, charcoal - a very dark grey color dapple-gray, dapple-grey, dappled-gray, dappled-grey - grey with a mottled pattern of darker grey markings iron-gray, iron-grey - the color of freshly broken cast iron tattletale gray, tattletale grey - a greyish white Davy's gray, Davy's grey, iron blue, steel gray, steel grey - slightly purplish or bluish dark grey