en.wiktionary.org

grey - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

  • ️Fri Mar 30 2018

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Various shades of grey.
  • gray (often used in the US)

From Middle English grey, from Old English grǣġ, from Proto-Germanic *grēwaz (compare Dutch grauw, German grau, Old Norse grár), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰreh₁- (“to green, to grow”) (compare Latin rāvus (“grey”), Old Church Slavonic зьрѭ (zĭrjǫ, “to see, to glance”), Russian зреть (zretʹ, “to watch, to look at”) (archaic), Lithuanian žeriù (“to shine”)).

grey (comparative greyer or more grey, superlative greyest or most grey)

  1. British and Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.

    • 1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:

      These grey and dun colors may be also produced by mixing whites and blacks.

    • 1954 August, H. M. Madgwick, “The Blaenau Festiniog Tunnel”, in Railway Magazine, page 569:

      This is itself a cheerless spot, particularly on a rainy day, when, overshadowed by the great massif of rock that towers in the background, and surrounded by the grey and cheerless quarries, it has a depressing character much in contrast with the green verdure encountered on the northern end of this interesting branch line.

  2. (South Africa, slang) Synonym of coloured (pertaining to the mixed race of black and white).[1]

grey (third-person singular simple present greys, present participle greying, simple past and past participle greyed)

  1. British and Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.

    • 1941, Emily Carr, chapter 18, in Klee Wyck‎[1]:

      Now only a few hand-hewn cedar planks and roof beams remained, moss-grown and sagging—a few totem poles, greyed and split.

grey (plural greys)

  1. British and Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.
Colors/Colours in English (layout · text)
             red          orange              yellow              green              blue (incl.      indigo;
             cyan, teal, turquoise) 		             purple / violet
         pink (including
         magenta) 		         brown      white              gray/grey      black
  1. ^ 2001, Charlotte Spinks, A New Apartheid? Urban Spatiality, (Fear of) Crime, and Segregation; in Cape Town, South Africa, Destin Development Studies Institute, ISSN 1470-2320

From Old Norse grey, from Proto-Germanic *grawją, cognate with Faroese groyggj.

grey n (genitive singular greys, nominative plural grey)

  1. (archaic) bitch (female dog)
  2. wretch
  3. pitiful person, poor thing

    Greyið mitt!

    You poor little thing!
  • Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989) Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, →ISBN (Available at Málið.is under the “Eldri orðabækur” tab.)
  • Kristín Bjarnadóttir, editor (2002–2025), “grey”, in Beygingarlýsing íslensks nútímamáls [The Database of Modern Icelandic Inflection] (in Icelandic), Reykjavík: The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
  • Mörður Árnason (2019) Íslensk orðabók, 5th edition, Reykjavík: Forlagið
  • “grey” in the Dictionary of Modern Icelandic (in Icelandic) and ISLEX (in the Nordic languages)

From Old English grǣġ, from Proto-West Germanic *grāu, from Proto-Germanic *grēwaz.

grey (plural and weak singular greye)

  1. grey, dull, drab (in color)
  2. glinting, glistening

grey

  1. grey (colour)
  2. Fur of the grey squirrel
  3. grey clothes
  4. grey textiles
  5. An elderly man
  6. A badger
Colors in Middle English · coloures, hewes(layout · text)
     whit      grey, hor      blak
             red; cremesyn, gernet              citrine, aumbre; broun, tawne              yelow, dorry, gul; canevas
             grasgrene              grene             
             plunket; ewage              asure, livid              blewe, blo, pers
             violet; inde              rose, murrey; purpel, purpur              claret

grey m (plural greys)

  1. Alternative form of gray (race of extraterrestrials)

Inherited from Old Spanish grey, from Latin gregem, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ger- (“to assemble, gather together”).

  • IPA(key): /ˈɡɾei/ [ˈɡɾei̯]
  • Rhymes: -ei
  • Syllabification: grey

grey f (plural greyes)

  1. (obsolete, poetic) flock, herd
    Synonyms: rebaño, rehala
  2. (religion) flock (people served by a pastor, priest, etc., also all believers in a church or religion)
    Synonyms: rebaño, feligresía, congregación, iglesia

    • 1877, Benito Pérez Galdós, Gloria:

      toda la grey díscola y ladina de aquellas verdes montañas

      the whole rebellious and cunning flock from those green mountains