Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To be in terror; fear; tremble or shudder with fear.
  • To be in terror of; fear; dread.
  • noun A pig; swine; especially, a little pig.
  • noun Specifically, in heraldry, a young wild boar.
  • noun A young animal of another kind, as a badger; a cub.
  • noun Same as greese.
  • Gray.
  • noun A gray fur, of the squirrel or rabbit.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Prov. Eng. See Grice, a pig.
  • noun obsolete A step (in a flight of stairs); a degree.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A step (in a flight of stairs); a degree.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Properly the plural of gree a step.

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Examples

  • Now I take it, this word grise contains the essence of the superiority of wine over whiskey.

    A Residence in France Cooper, J Fenimore 1836

  • A telling defection in Congress was that of Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, the foreign policy eminence grise of the Republican Party.

    The Longest War Peter L. Bergen 2011

  • One newsworthy passage: On Sunday, I saw Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani, the son of the establishment's embittered éminence grise, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

    Iran Election Live-Blogging (Monday June 22) The Huffington Post News Team 2009

  • And who was creating this mysterious aura, this reputation of an eminence grise?

    The Return Daniel Treisman 2011

  • A telling defection in Congress was that of Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, the foreign policy eminence grise of the Republican Party.

    The Longest War Peter L. Bergen 2011

  • And who was creating this mysterious aura, this reputation of an eminence grise?

    The Return Daniel Treisman 2011

  • And who was creating this mysterious aura, this reputation of an eminence grise?

    The Return Daniel Treisman 2011

  • I also wanted to get a real eminence grise´ for the book review column, and was able to snatch Gahan Wilson (yes, that Gahan Wilson) out from under the hands of George Scithers who was at the time trying to get him as a reviewer for his magazine.

    Spotlight On Realms of Fantasy 2010

  • The host of Piers Morgan Tonight weeknights at 9/8c has gone on record with his disdain for an eminence grise like Madonna — clearly trying to show his outrageousness.

    Piers Morgan Debuts on CNN; 25 Years To Go? 2011

  • And who was creating this mysterious aura, this reputation of an eminence grise?

    The Return Daniel Treisman 2011

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