HOARY (hoarier, hoariest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: hoarier    , hoariest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does hoary mean? 

• HOARY (adjective)
  The adjective HOARY has 3 senses:

1. showing characteristics of age, especially having grey or white hair

2. ancient

3. covered with fine whitish hairs or down

  Familiarity information: HOARY used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HOARY (adjective)

Comparative: hoarier   
Superlative: hoariest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Showing characteristics of age, especially having grey or white hair

Synonyms:

gray; gray-haired; gray-headed; grey; grey-haired; grey-headed; grizzly; hoar; hoary; white-haired

Context example:

nodded his hoary head

Similar:

old ((used especially of persons) having lived for a relatively long time or attained a specific age)

Derivation:

hoariness (great age (especially grey or white with age))

hoariness (a silvery-white color)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Ancient

Synonyms:

hoary; rusty

Context example:

hoary jokes

Similar:

old (of long duration; not new)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Covered with fine whitish hairs or down

Synonyms:

canescent; hoary

Similar:

haired; hairy; hirsute (having or covered with hair)

Domain category:

biological science; biology (the science that studies living organisms)

 Context examples 

The dogs were already pointing the way, each wistful and hoary muzzle turned toward the dim snow-path that left the main river trail and climbed the bank of the island.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

It was a very grey day; a most opaque sky, "onding on snaw," canopied all; thence flakes felt it intervals, which settled on the hard path and on the hoary lea without melting.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I had not seen a coal fire, since I had left England three years ago: though many a wood fire had I watched, as it crumbled into hoary ashes, and mingled with the feathery heap upon the hearth, which not inaptly figured to me, in my despondency, my own dead hopes.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He expressed once, and but once in my hearing, a strong sense of the rugged charm of the hills, and an inborn affection for the dark roof and hoary walls he called his home; but there was more of gloom than pleasure in the tone and words in which the sentiment was manifested; and never did he seem to roam the moors for the sake of their soothing silence—never seek out or dwell upon the thousand peaceful delights they could yield.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

You live just below—do you mean at that house with the battlements? pointing to Thornfield Hall, on which the moon cast a hoary gleam, bringing it out distinct and pale from the woods that, by contrast with the western sky, now seemed one mass of shadow.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I was yet enjoying the calm prospect and pleasant fresh air, yet listening with delight to the cawing of the rooks, yet surveying the wide, hoary front of the hall, and thinking what a great place it was for one lonely little dame like Mrs. Fairfax to inhabit, when that lady appeared at the door.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She made such a report of me to her father, that Mr. Oliver himself accompanied her next evening—a tall, massive-featured, middle-aged, and grey-headed man, at whose side his lovely daughter looked like a bright flower near a hoary turret.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)