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hoary

- 4 dictionary results

hoar⋅y

[hawr-ee, hohr-ee]
–adjective, hoar⋅i⋅er, hoar⋅i⋅est.
1. gray or white with age: an old dog with a hoary muzzle.
2. ancient or venerable: hoary myths.
3. tedious from familiarity; stale: Please don't tell that hoary joke at dinner again tonight.

Origin:
1520–30; hoar + -y 1


hoar⋅i⋅ly, adverb
hoar⋅i⋅ness, noun


1. grizzled, grizzly; hoar. 2. old, dated, aged; venerated, revered.
hoar·y   (hôr'ē, hōr'ē)   
adj.   hoar·i·er, hoar·i·est
  1. Gray or white with or as if with age.
  2. Covered with grayish hair or pubescence: hoary leaves.
  3. So old as to inspire veneration; ancient.
hoar'i·ly adv., hoar'i·ness n.

Hoary

Hoar"y\, a. 1. White or whitish. "The hoary willows." --Addison.

2. White or gray with age; hoar; as, hoary hairs.

Reverence the hoary head. --Dr. T. Dwight.

3. Hence, remote in time past; as, hoary antiquity.

4. Moldy; mossy; musty. [Obs.] --Knolles.

5. (Zo["o]l.) Of a pale silvery gray.

6. (Bot.) Covered with short, dense, grayish white hairs; canescent.

Hoary bat (Zo["o]l.), an American bat (Atalapha cinerea), having the hair yellowish, or brown, tipped with white.

hoary 
1520, "grey or white with age" (of hair), 1609 as "venerable, ancient." See hoar.
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