grey-haired, a.
(Stress variable.)
Having grey hair; hence, old.
| 13.. Evang. Nicod. 1551 in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr. LIII. 420 Two grayhared men..with þam mett. a 1400 Pistill Susan 339 Þin hed is grei hored. 14.. Sir Beues 3322 (MS. M.) That ye thare not drede than Of Sabere, that grey-herud man. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 209/2 Grey heryd, canus. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. (1711) 37 If gray-hair'd Proteus songs the truth not miss. a 1706 Earl of Dorset Fr. Song paraphr. 1 In gray-hair'd Celia's wither'd arms. 1801 Southey Thalaba viii. xxxii, The grey-hair'd Sorceress stampt the ground. 1847 G. R. Gleig Waterloo xxix. (ed. 2) 233 Many..were grey-haired men and covered with the scars of old wounds. |
b. fig. of things.
| 1611 W. Barksted Hiren xx. A vj. Alas faire Christian Saint..So yong, and full of gray hair'd purity. 1622 H. Sydenham Serm. Sol. Occ. (1637) 8 A gray-hair'd custom of most times and places. |