What is "gray"

Gray \Gray\ (gr[=a]), a. [Compar. Grayer; superl. Grayest.] [OE. gray, grey, AS. gr[=ae]g, gr[=e]g; akin to D. graauw, OHG. gr[=a]o, G. grau, Dan. graa, Sw. gr[*a], Icel. gr[=a]r.]

1. any color of neutral hue between white and black; white mixed with black, as the color of pepper and salt, or of ashes, or of hair whitened by age; sometimes, a dark mixed color; as, the soft gray eye of a dove.

   These gray and dun colors may be also produced by mixing whites and blacks.
   --Sir I. Newton.

2. Gray-haired; gray-headed; of a gray color; hoary.

3. Old; mature; as, gray experience. -- Ames.

4. gloomy; dismal.

   Gray antimony (Min.), stibnite.

   Gray buck (Zo["o]l.), the chickara.

   Gray cobalt (Min.), smaltite.

   Gray copper (Min.), tetrahedrite.

   Gray duck (Zo["o]l.), the gadwall; also applied to the female mallard.

   Gray falcon (Zo["o]l.) the peregrine falcon.

   Gray Friar. See Franciscan, and Friar.

   Gray hen (Zo["o]l.), the female of the blackcock or black grouse. See Heath grouse.

   Gray mill or Gray millet (Bot.), a name of several plants of the genus Lithospermum; gromwell.

   Gray mullet (Zo["o]l.) any one of the numerous species of the genus Mugil, or family Mugilid[ae], found both in the Old World and America; as the European species ( Mugilid[ae] capito, and Mugilid[ae] auratus), the American striped mullet ( Mugilid[ae] albula), and the white or silver mullet ( Mugilid[ae] Braziliensis). See Mullet.

   Gray owl (Zo["o]l.), the European tawny or brown owl ( Syrnium aluco). The great gray owl ( Ulula cinerea) inhabits arctic America.

   Gray parrot (Zo["o]l.), an African parrot ( Psittacus erithacus), very commonly domesticated, and noted for its aptness in learning to talk. Also called jako.

   Gray pike. (Zo["o]l.) See Sauger.

   Gray snapper (Zo["o]l.), a Florida fish; the sea lawyer. See Snapper.

   Gray snipe (Zo["o]l.), the dowitcher in winter plumage.

   Gray whale (Zo["o]l.), a rather large and swift whale of the northern Pacific ( Eschrichtius robustus, formerly Rhachianectes glaucus), having short jaws and no dorsal fin. It grows to a length of 50 feet (someimes 60 feet). It was formerly taken in large numbers in the bays of California, and is now rare; -- called also grayback, devilfish, and hardhead. It lives up to 50 or 60 years and adults weigh from 20 to 40 tons.

Gray \Gray\ (gr[=a]), n.

1. A gray color; any mixture of white and black; also, a neutral or whitish tint.

2. An animal or thing of gray color, as a horse, a badger, or a kind of salmon.

   Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day. That coats thy life, my gallant gray.
   --Sir W. Scott.

3. (U. S. History) the Confederate army or a soldier in the confederate army; as, a battle between the blue and the gray.

Gray \Gray\ (gr[=a]), n. [named after Louis Harold Gray, English radiobiologist.] the SI unit of absorbed dosage of ionizing radiation, equal to an absorbed energy of 1 joule per kilogram of irradiated material; -- abbreviated Gy. This unit is 100 times the commonly used unit, the rad.

Old English græg (Mercian grei), from Proto-Germanic *grewa- "gray" (cognates: Old Norse grar, Old Frisian gre, Middle Dutch gra, Dutch graw, Old High German grao, German grau), with no certain cognates outside Germanic. French gris, Spanish gris, Italian grigio, Medieval Latin griseus are Germanic loan-words.\n

\nThe distinction between British grey and U.S. gray developed 20c. The noun is c.1200, from the adjective. Gray as figurative for "Southern troops in the U.S. Civil War" is first recorded 1863, in reference to their uniform color. Expression the gray mare is the better horse in reference to households ruled by wives is recorded from 1540s. The verb is 1610s (with an isolated instance from late 14c.). Related: Grayed; graying.

Etymology 1

1. 1 (label en US) Having a color somewhere between white and black, as the ash of an ember. 2 (label en US) dreary, gloomy. 3 (label en US) Having an indistinct, disputed or uncertain quality. 4 (label en US) Relating to older people. n. 1 (label en US) An achromatic colour intermediate between black and white. 2 (label en chiefly US ufology) an extraterrestrial creature with grayish skin, bulbous black eyes, and an enlarged head. 3 (label en US two-up) A penny with a tail on both sides, used for cheating.Sidney J. Baker, ''The Australian Language'', second edition, 1966, chapter XI section 3, page 243 v

2. 1 (label en US) To become gray. 2 (label en US) To cause to become gray. 3 (label en US demography slang) To turn progressively older, in the context of the population of a geographic region. Etymology 2

   n. In the International System of Units, the derived unit of absorbed dose of radiation (radiation absorbed by a patient); one joule of energy absorbed per kilogram of the patient's mass. Symbol: ''Gy''

1. adj. an achromatic color of any lightness between the extremes of black and white; "gray flannel suit"; "hair just turning gray" [syn: grey, grayish, greyish]

2. showing characteristics of age, especially having gray or white hair; "whose beard with age is hoar"-Coleridge; "nodded his hoary head" [syn: grey, gray-haired, grey-haired, gray-headed, grey-headed, grizzly, hoar, hoary, white-haired]

3. darkened with overcast; "a dark day"; "a dull sky"; "a gray rainy afternoon"; "gray clouds"; "the sky was leaden and thick" [syn: dull, grey, leaden]

4. used to signify the Confederate forces in the Civil War (who wore gray uniforms); "a stalwart gray figure" [syn: grey]

5. intermediate in character or position; "a gray area between clearly legal and strictly illegal" [syn: grey]

1. v. make gray; "The painter decided to grey the sky" [syn: grey]

2. turn gray; "Her hair began to gray" [syn: grey]

1. n. a neutral achromatic color midway between white and black [syn: grayness, grey, greyness]

2. gray clothing; "he was dressed in gray" [syn: grey]

3. any organization or party whose uniforms or badges are gray; "the Confederate army was a vast gray" [syn: grey]

4. horse of a light grey or whitish color

5. English poet best known for his elegy written in a country church-yard (1716-1771) [syn: Thomas Gray]

6. American navigator who twice circumnavigated the globe and who discovered the Columbia River (1755-1806) [syn: Robert Gray]

7. United States botanist who specialized in North American flora and who was an early supporter of Darwin's theories of evolution (1810-1888) [syn: Asa Gray]

The gray (symbol: Gy) is a derived unit of ionizing radiation dose in the International System of Units (SI). It is defined as the absorption of one joule of radiation energy per kilogram of matter.

It is used as a measure of absorbed dose, specific energy (imparted), and kerma (an acronym for kinetic energy released per unit mass). It is a physical quantity, and does not take into account any biological context. Unlike the pre-1971 non-SI roentgen unit of radiation exposure, the gray when used for absorbed dose is defined independently of any target material. However, when measuring kerma the reference target material must be defined explicitly, usually as dry air at standard temperature and pressure.

The corresponding cgs unit, the rad (equivalent to 0.01 Gy), remains common in the United States, though "strongly discouraged" in the style guide for U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology authors.

Gray or grey is a coat color of horses characterized by progressive silvering of the colored hairs of the coat. Most gray horses have black skin and dark eyes; unlike many depigmentation genes, gray does not affect skin or eye color. Their adult hair coat is white, dappled, or white intermingled with hairs of other colors. Gray horses may be born any base color, depending on other color genes present. White hairs begin to appear at or shortly after birth and become progressively lighter as the horse ages. Graying can occur at different rates—very quickly on one horse and very slowly on another.

Gray horses appear in many breeds, though the color is most commonly seen in breeds descended from Arabian ancestors. Some breeds that have large numbers of gray-colored horses include the Thoroughbred, the Arabian, the American Quarter Horse, the Percheron, the Andalusian, the Welsh pony, and the most famous of all gray horse breeds, the Lipizzaner.

People who are unfamiliar with horses may refer to gray horses as "white." However, a gray horse whose hair coat is completely "white" will still have black skin (except under markings that were white at birth) and dark eyes. This is how to discern a gray horse from a white horse. White horses usually have pink skin and sometimes even have blue eyes. Young horses with hair coats consisting of a mixture of colored and gray or white hairs are sometimes confused with roan. Some horses that carry dilution genes may also be confused with white or gray.

While gray is commonly called a coat color by breed registries, genetically it may be more correct to call it a depigmentation pattern. It is a dominant allele, and thus a horse needs only one copy of the gray allele, that is, heterozygous, to be gray in color. A homozygous gray horse, one carrying two gray alleles, will always produce gray foals.

Lee Seong-hwa ( Hangul: 이성화; born December 8, 1986), known as Gray (, stylized as GRAY) is a South Korean singer and producer signed under AOMG, a record label headed by Jay Park and Simon D. He is part of VV:D crew along with Korean hip hop artists Loco, ELO, and Crush.

Gray is a surname of that can come from a variety of origins but is typically found in Scotland, Ireland and England.

In Scotland and Ireland, the surname may have a Gaelic source, but in the former, seems to originate primarily in the Berwickshire and Morayshire areas. Instances that may derive from Gaelic and, as with other Gaelic surnames, can be a literal translation or a phonetic transcription, or an " Anglicization." A surname typically Anglicized to McGrath or McGraw can be seen as phonetically transcribed to "Gray." A literal translation of "Mac Giolla Riabhaigh" shows up as Gray, but is also Anglicized to "McGreevy," "Gallery" and others.

In the case of most Scottish instances, the name "Gray" was adopted by speakers of the English language, which was initially referred to as, " Inglis" in early Scottish texts and later, was often described as " Scots". The origin in these areas is likely to come from the Old English word, "græg", meaning "grey", probably as a hair colour. As the county of Berwickshire lies on the Scottish border with England, the English spelling is "Grey" and is the same family group as the Scottish name. Many other names in the Scottish Borders are, like Gray, to be found in both Scotland and England.

Also among Irish and Scottish Grays is the English name of Anglo-Norman origin. A knight of Viking origin, Anchetil de Greye, accompanied William the Conqueror in his 1066 invasion of England. Anchetil's descendants would become bishops of Norwich and York. From this man likely descends Anglo-Normans who settled in Ireland and Scotland during the Norman incursions in those two countries.

The Gray was an automobile manufactured in Detroit, Michigan by the Gray Motor Corporation from 1922-26. The Gray Motor Corporation produced two models, the Star and Gray. They were an attempt to win a share of the mass market dominated by Ford Model T. Many of the employees of Gray, were former Ford employees, including the head of Gray Corporation, Frank L. Klingensmith, who was the former vice president and treasurer of Ford Motor Company. The vehicles had similar features of engine and chassis to the Model T. The engine had a side-valve, four-cylinder 2.7 litre configuration. The suspension used a conventional quarter-elliptical spring at the front and rear. Front-wheeled brakes were offered in 1926, the last year of production. They planned on production of nearly a quarter of a million a year the first year, but those volumes were never realized. The touring car cost $490, and the coach was sold at $760, the first year of production.