grey hair
47
1.1
- noun
- /ɡreɪ hɛr/
- UK
:
cana
- Many people embrace their grey hair as a sign of wisdom and experience.
- old people with grey hair
But we've long known that grey hair is associated with stress.
- But we've long known that grey hair is associated with stress.
- I'm seeing blonde hair, or maybe it's Gray hair that I'm seeing.
- I'm glad I made the decision to like let the Gray hairs fly.
- In addition, this is how we start to see things like Gray hair because our pigment cells start to die.
- How are you going to treat individual Gray hairs?
- By the way, my Gray hair, it's real today.
Examples
-
The Chief is a big, impressive man with grey hair and in totally traditional native costume.
Fiction book (1990) -
Caudell took careful aim at the lead man, whose gray hair suggested he might be of high rank.
Fiction book (1992) -
Yeah, my hair is full of gray hair.
-
The guy with the gray hair was crazy about you.
-
But what about your gray hair?
-
I found a gray hair in my head this morning.
-
Finally, an older man, with grey hair cut short, came by.
Academic text (2011) -
I have gray hair and round spectacles.
-
Inside was a man with gray hair, a good Western suit, and a frown.
Fiction book (1992) -
But we've long known that grey hair is associated with stress.
How Grey
Surface Forms
Morphology
The primary meaning 'hair that has turned grey' is directly and transparently derived from combining the adjective 'grey' (color) with the noun 'hair', following a standard adjective+noun composition that a B1 learner who knows both words can infer. Although there is a secondary figurative sense (stress or worry causing premature greying), this sense is clearly related to the literal meaning and remains accessible once the literal relation is understood, so the overall expression is transparent.
Etymology
Grey hair comes from the real sight of grey hair on a person's head when they get older or very worried. Because people saw that age and 'worry' make hair turn grey, grey hair came to mean both the hair itself and the 'stress' or 'age' that makes someone look older.