Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - grey

(greyer, greyest) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. Note: in AM, use 'gray' 1. Grey is the colour of ashes or of clouds on a rainy day. ...a grey suit. COLOUR 2. You use grey to describe the colour of people’s hair when it changes from its original colour, usually as they get old. ...my grey hair... Eddie was going grey. ADJ 3. If the weather is grey, there are many clouds in the sky and the light is dull. It was a grey, wet April Sunday. ADJ • greyness ...winter’s greyness. N-UNCOUNT 4. If you describe a situation as grey, you mean that it is dull, unpleasant, or difficult. Brazilians look gloomily forward to a New Year that even the president admits will be grey and cheerless. = bleak ADJ • greyness In this new world of greyness there is an attempt to remove all risks. N-UNCOUNT 5. If you describe someone or something as grey, you think that they are boring and unattractive, and very similar to other things or other people. ...little grey men in suits. ADJ c darkgreen]disapproval • greyness Journalists are frustrated by his apparent greyness. N-UNCOUNT: with supp 6. Journalists sometimes use grey to describe things concerning old people. There was further evidence of grey consumer power last week, when Ford revealed a car designed with elderly people in mind. ADJ