What does "hoary" mean?
Hoary: White or gray with age; hoar; as, hoary hairs. Reverence the hoary head. Dr. T. Dwight.
Additional senses
- 2.Hence, remote in time past; as, hoary antiquity.
- 3.Moldy; mossy; musty. [Obs.] Knolles.
- 4.(Zoöl.) Of a pale silvery gray.
- 5.(Bot.) Covered with short, dense, grayish white hairs; canescent. Hoary bat (Zoöl.), an American bat (Atalapha cinerea), having the hair yellowish, or brown, tipped with white.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00