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gray

 - 17 dictionary results

gray

1  [grey] adjective, -er, -est, noun, verb
Use gray in a Sentence
–adjective
1. of a color between white and black; having a neutral hue.
2. dark, dismal, or gloomy: gray skies.
3. dull, dreary, or monotonous.
4. having gray hair; gray-headed.
5. pertaining to old age; mature.
6. Informal. pertaining to, involving, or composed of older persons: gray households.
7. old or ancient.
8. indeterminate and intermediate in character: The tax audit concentrated on deductions in the gray area between purely personal and purely business expenses.
–noun
9. any achromatic color; any color with zero chroma, intermediate between white and black.
10. something of this color.
11. gray material or clothing: to dress in gray.
12. an unbleached and undyed condition.
13. (often initial capital letter) a member of the Confederate army in the American Civil War or the army itself. Compare blue (def. 5).
14. a horse of a gray color.
15. a horse that appears white but is not an albino.
–verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
16. to make or become gray.
Also, grey.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME; OE grǣg; c. G grau

Related forms:
grayly, adverb
grayness, noun

gray

2  [grey]
–noun Physics.
the SI unit of absorbed dose, equal to the amount of ionizing radiation absorbed when the energy imparted to matter is 1 J/kg. Abbreviation: Gy
Compare rad.

Origin:
1975; named in honor of Louis Harold Gray (1905–65), English radiobiologist

Gray

  [grey]
–noun
1. A⋅sa  [ey-suh] , 1810–88, U.S. botanist.
2. Robert, 1755–1806, U.S. explorer and sea captain: discovered the Columbia River.
3. Thomas, 1716–71, English poet.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To gray
gray 1 also grey   (grā)   
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.

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

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

    3. Having gray hair; hoary.

    4. Old or venerable.

    1. Having gray hair; hoary.

    2. 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

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

    2. 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.

    1. To become old; age.

    2. 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).


[Middle English grei, from Old English grǣg.]
gray'ly adj., gray'ness n.
gray 2   (grā)   
n.   Abbr. Gy
The SI unit for the energy absorbed from ionizing radiation, equal to one joule per kilogram.

[After Louis Harold Gray (1905-1965), British radiobiologist.]
Gray   (grā)   
American botanist who greatly enlarged and improved the description of North American flora and was the chief American advocate of Charles Darwin's theories.
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).
Gray, Thomas 1716-1771.  
British poet considered a forerunner of English romanticism. His most famous work is Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751).
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

gray 
O.E. græg (Mercian grei), from P.Gmc. *græwyaz (cf. O.N. grar, O.Fris. gre, Du. graw, Ger. grau), from PIE *ghreghwos, but no certain cognates outside Gmc. The distinction between British grey and U.S. gray developed 20c. Gray as figurative for "Southern troops in the U.S. Civil War" is first recorded 1863, in reference to their uniform color.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: 1gray
Variant: or chiefly British grey /'grA/
Function: noun
: any of a series of neutral colors ranging betweenblack and white —gray or chiefly British grey adjective

Main Entry: 2gray
Pronunciation: 'grA
Function: noun
: the mks unit of absorbed dose of ionizing radiation equal to an energy of one joule perkilogram of irradiated material —abbreviation Gy
Gray, Louis Harold (1905–1965), British radiobiologist. In 1933 Gray established a physics laboratory tomeasure radiation in the treatment of cancer at Mount Vernon Hospital, Middlesex, England. Earlier he and Sir W. H. Bragg had formulated a theory for deducing the energy absorbed by a material exposedto gamma rays from the ionization within a small gas-filled cavity in the material. At Mount Vernon he was to apply his theory to X rays and later, in modified form, to neutrons. Gray expressed theneutron dose values in energy units, anticipating the International Commission on Radiological Units, which in 1953 adopted the rad as the unit for measuring all types of ionizing radiation. In 1975the Commission adopted the gray as the physical unit of dose.
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

gray (grā)
n.
Abbr. Gy
A unit for a specific absorbed dose of radiation equal to 100 rads.

Gray (grā), Henry. 1825?-1861.

British anatomist whose work Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical (1858), known as Gray's Anatomy, remains a standard text.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Science Dictionary
gray   (grā)  Pronunciation Key 
The SI derived unit used to measure the energy absorbed by a substance per unit weight of the substance when exposed to radiation. One gray is equal to one joule per kilogram, or 100 rads. The gray is named after British physicist Louis Harold Gray (1905-1965).
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Computing Dictionary

Gray
A parser generator written in Forth by Martin Anton Ertl . Gray takes grammars in an extended BNF and produces executable Forth code for recursive descent parsers. There is no special support for error handling. Version 3 runs under Tile Forth Release 2 by Mikael Patel.
(1992-05-22)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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Idioms & Phrases

gray

In addition to the idioms beginning with gray, also see get gray hair from.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Encyclopedia

gray

unit of absorbed dose of ionizing radiation, defined in the 1980s by the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements. One gray is equal approximately to the absorbed dose delivered when the energy per unit mass imparted to matter by ionizing radiation is one joule per kilogram. As a unit of measure, the gray is coherent with the units of measure in the International System of Units (SI). The gray replaced the rad, which was not coherent with the SI system. One gray equals 100 rads

Learn more about gray with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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