Definition

1. Adjective:

   • White or grey with age: Describes something, especially hair or a person's head, that has turned white or grey due to old age.
   • Ancient, venerable: Describes something that is very old, often with a sense of antiquity or being covered with a whitish substance from age.

2. Noun:

   • A white frost or rime: Refers to the white, icy deposit of frozen dew that forms on surfaces, especially outdoors on cold mornings.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:

  • The old man had a hoar beard that reached his chest.
  • The hoar ruins of the castle stood silently on the hill.

• Noun:

  • The morning hoar covered the grass, making it sparkle in the sunlight.
  • Every branch was coated with a delicate layer of hoar.

Advanced Usage

• "Hoar frost": A specific term for the white ice crystals that form on surfaces when the dew point is below freezing. This is a common compound.

  • The trees were beautiful, covered in hoar frost.

• Literary/Archaic Use: The adjective is often used in poetic or literary contexts to convey great age or a frosty appearance.

  • ...whose beard with age is hoar... (From S.T. Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner)

Variants and Related Words

• Hoary (adj): The more common adjective form meaning greyish-white with age, or very old.
  • The hoary old legend was passed down for generations.
• Hoarfrost (n): A compound noun synonymous with the noun 'hoar'.
  • The car windows were etched with intricate patterns of hoarfrost.

Synonyms

• Adjective: Grey, white, grizzled, ancient, aged, frosty.
• Noun: Frost, rime, white frost.

Related Phrases

• Hoar with age: A phrase emphasizing that the whiteness is specifically due to age.
  • His head was hoar with age.
• Touched with hoar: A poetic phrase meaning lightly covered with frost.
  • The meadow was touched with hoar at dawn.

Adjective

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

Noun

1. ice crystals forming a white deposit (especially on objects outside)