iron-grey, -gray, a. and n.
[f. iron n. + grey. OE. {iacu}sen-grǽᵹ; in ON. jarn-grár, OHG. îsen-grâ, Ger. eisen-grau.]
A. adj. Of the grey colour of freshly broken iron, or of dark hair when ‘turning grey’.
| a 1000 O.E. Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 236/35 Ferrugineo flore..isengræᵹum blostme. Ibid. 408/33 Ferrugineas, þa isengræᵹan. 1483 Cath. Angl. 198/2 Irengray, glaucus. 1687 Lond. Gaz. No. 2248/4 An Iron grey Nag, about 14 hands high. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 64 ¶2 A fresh black Button upon his Iron-gray Suit. 1848 Dickens Dombey v, An iron-grey autumnal day. 1865 Trollope Belton Est. v. 49 A..wiry man, about fifty, with iron-grey hair and beard. |
B. n.
1. A dark grey colour resembling that of freshly broken iron.
| [a 1000 O.E. Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 236/32 Color purpuræ subnigræ, isengræᵹ.] 1552 Act 5 & 6 Edw. VI, c. 6 §46 Any other Colour..than..Motley or Iron-gray. 1766 Pennant Brit. Zool. (1768) I. 98 A deep iron-grey, bordering on black. |
2. An iron-grey horse, or (quot. 1856) dog; also transf. a person whose dark hair is grizzled.
| 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §68 A sandy colte, lyke an yren grey, neyther lyke syre nor damme. 1822 Hermit in Lond. I. 269 Everywhere..do these disguised iron-greys still bear the belle by taper-light. 1852 Smedley L. Arundel xviii. 129 A splendid pair of dark iron-grays, with silver manes and tails. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. I. xix. 238 A span of thoroughly wolfish iron-grays. |
Hence iron-greyed ppl. a., turned iron-grey.
| 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey iii. viii, His hair..was now silvered, or rather iron-greyed, not by age. |