Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Mottled with gray, especially bluish gray; grizzled.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pearl-gray; gray verging on blue.

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

  • adjective Of a light color, or white, mottled with black or brown; grizzled or grizzly.

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

  • adjective Having a gray, mottled appearance

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin grīseus, of Germanic origin.]

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Examples

  • At its heart, this attitude embrangles the concepts of "need" and "want"; those fubsy fuddy-duddies with griseous imaginations believe that words no longer in frequent use will never in the future be needed by English speakers and writers more nitid than themselves.

    A malison on the poor of spirit. Angry Professor 2008

  • At its heart, this attitude embrangles the concepts of "need" and "want"; those fubsy fuddy-duddies with griseous imaginations believe that words no longer in frequent use will never in the future be needed by English speakers and writers more nitid than themselves.

    Archive 2008-10-01 Angry Professor 2008

  • Black and punctured, with thin long griseous pubescence; the vertex, disk of the thorax, and the abdomen shining; the mandibles and clypeus yellow, the latter with a black bell-shaped spot in the middle; wings fulvo-hyaline, the nervures ferruginous; the tibiæ with a yellow line outside.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • The freshest specimens have the griseous margin of the elytra, which parts from the base under the shoulder, obliquely and angularly ampliate interiorly towards the middle, where it reaches the second stria.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • Head and thorax black and very closely punctured; the face covered with griseous pubescence; the clypeus with a central longitudinal carina.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • Black, punctured and opake; the clypeus terminating in a sharp-pointed angle; the base and apex of the mandibles rufo-piceous; the scape ferruginous in front; the face with a thin, fine, griseous pubescence.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • Black; the scape in front, the sides and apical margin of the clypeus, and a spot at the base of the mandibles yellow; the cheeks reddish-yellow; the antennæ ferruginous; the head covered with short griseous pubescence.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • Black; the clypeus, mesothorax anteriorly, and the posterior tibiæ outside coarsely rugose, the roughness on the thorax consisting of transverse little elevated points; the face with a thin griseous pubescence; the anterior margin of the clypeus fringed with fulvous hairs; the cheeks have a long pale fulvous pubescence.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • This griseous pilosity fills all the tips of the elytra, leaving bare only the sutures, an angular notch behind the middle (which forms with that apical part of the suture a kind of hook on each elytron), and two round spots, one submarginal fronting the tip of the notch, the other larger, discoidal, behind the foot of the notch, much above the tip.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • Black; the head and thorax very closely punctured, thinly clothed with griseous pubescence, that on the face, thorax beneath, and on the coxæ most dense and glittering; antennæ more slender than is usual in this genus, and tapering to their apex, the joints slightly subarcuate; the mandibles bidentate at their apex and with a yellow spot at their base.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

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