Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Having gray or white hair, especially as a sign of aging: The primary meaning describes a person (or sometimes an animal) whose hair has turned gray or white due to old age.
   • Elderly, aged: By extension, it can describe someone who is old or venerable.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • The gray-headed gentleman sat quietly on the park bench, feeding the pigeons.
  • In the family portrait, my gray-headed grandmother is seated in the center, surrounded by her children and grandchildren.

Advanced Usage

• Descriptive and Figurative Use: While typically literal, "gray-headed" can be used in a respectful or poetic context to imply wisdom and experience gained with age.
  • The gray-headed professor was a repository of knowledge about ancient history.
• Use in Literature: The term often appears in literary or formal descriptions to evoke an image of age and dignity.

Variants and Related Words

• Gray-haired (adj): Having gray hair. This is a more common and direct synonym.
• Hoary (adj): Gray or white with age; ancient. This is a more literary synonym, as seen in the reference context ("hoary head").
• Silver-haired (adj): Having silvery-white hair, often used as a more positive or elegant alternative.
• Elderly (adj): (Of a person) old or aging.

Synonyms

• Gray-haired
• Hoary
• Silver-haired
• Aged
• Elderly

Antonyms

• Youthful
• Young
• Dark-haired

Related Phrases and Idioms

• Gray hairs: A phrase referring to the state of being old or the worries that cause one to age.
  • Raising teenagers gave me my first gray hairs.
• Respect your elders: An idiom encouraging respect for older, more experienced people, who are often gray-headed.

Adjective

1. showing characteristics of age, especially having grey or white hair
   • whose beard with age is hoar-Coleridge
   • nodded his hoary head