Definitions

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

  • adjective Biology Covered with short, fine whitish or grayish hairs or down; hoary.
  • adjective Turning white or grayish.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Growing white or hoary; tending or approaching to white; whitish: applied to hoary, whitish pelage, plumage, or other covering of animals, and to plants with gray or hoary pubescence.

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

  • adjective Growing white, or assuming a color approaching to white.

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

  • adjective turning white or gray
  • adjective botany covered with short white or gray hairs; hoary

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of greyish white
  • adjective covered with fine whitish hairs or down

Etymologies

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

[Latin cānēscēns, cānēscent-, present participle of cānēscere, inchoative of cānēre, to be white, from cānus, white; see kas- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin canescens, present participle of canescere ("to become gray or white")

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Examples

  • Indeed, after the canescent heat of the day, and the tossing of our ill-conditioned vessel, we should have been contented with lodgings far less luxurious.

    Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah 2003

  • Chapter XVIII In the canescent pre-dawn light Conan flattened himself on a narrow granite ledge as a file of hillmen rode by on a narrow path below, between steep walls.

    Conan The Magnificent Jordan, Robert 1986

  • A downward-sloping corridor opened into a great square chamber, thirty paces on a side, with softly-gleaming canescent walls that were all of one piece, without join.

    Conan The Victorious Jordan, Robert 1984

  • He settled on the cushions before it, and once more the ancient incantation rolled against the canescent walls.

    Conan The Victorious Jordan, Robert 1984

  • He swung from contemplation of the resurrected warrior, standing as still as stone against the canescent wall in the same spot to which Naipal had at last commanded him on the previous night.

    Conan The Victorious Jordan, Robert 1984

  • In the canescent pre-dawn light Conan flattened himself on a narrow granite ledge as a file of hillmen rode by on a narrow path below, between steep walls.

    Conan The Magnificent Jordan, Robert 1984

  • With a snarl of rage she resumed her pacing, her long robe of canescent silk clinging to every curve of her body.

    Conan The Triumphant Jordan, Robert, 1948- 1983

  • In the distance, the blue Pyrenees look like a bank of clouds; the air that bathes them shapes them into aërial forms, vapory phantoms, the farthest of which vanish in the canescent horizon -- dim contours, that might be taken for a fugitive sketch from the lightest of pencils.

    Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 4 France and the Netherlands, Part 2 Various 1885

  • Clue: large? tree of eurasia and north africa having greyish canescent leaves and grey bark.

    Gaea Times (by Simple Thoughts) Breaking News and incisive views 24/7 2009

  • Clue: large? tree of eurasia and north africa having greyish canescent leaves and grey bark.

    Gaea Times (by Simple Thoughts) Breaking News and incisive views 24/7 2009

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