Hoary
adj ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 White, whitish, or greyish-white.
"As hoary frost with spangles doth attire, The mossy braunches of an oke halfe ded,"
- 2 White or grey with age.
"The old man bowed his hoary head in acquiescence."
- 3 Of a pale silvery grey.
- 4 Covered with short, dense, greyish white hairs.
- 5 Old or old-fashioned; trite. figuratively
"It was, however, most interesting work, and the moulders themselves were a decent crowd, never tired of making jokes about themselves such as the hoary one that moulders did not live long, which however ran counter to the other one that no germs could live in a foundry—the atmosphere was too foul."
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- 6 Remote in time past. obsolete
"The probability of these flattering fictions could no longer be examined, when the hoary antiquity of such traditions had gained them veneration. An adventure of ancient date was in blind after-ages too readily received as truth."
- 7 Moldy; mossy; musty. obsolete
"By chance there was at that time brought out of the citie into the campe verie course, hoarie, moulded bread, which some of the souldiours hauing bought, and thrusting it vpon the points of their speares, shewed it vnto their fellowes in great choller, railing against king Ferdinand, which in his owne kingdome in the beginning of the warre had made no better prouision, but with such corrupt and pestilent bread to feed them being strangers, which were onely for his defence and quarrell to aduenture their liues."
- 1 covered with fine whitish hairs or down wordnet
- 2 ancient wordnet
- 3 showing characteristics of age, especially having grey or white hair wordnet
Example
More examples""Then wars shall cease and savage times grow mild, / and Remus and Quirinus, brethren twain, / with hoary Faith and Vesta undefiled, / shall give the law. With iron bolt and chain / firm-closed the gates of Janus shall remain. / Within, the Fiend of Discord, high reclined / on horrid arms, unheeded in the fane, / bound with a hundred brazen knots behind, / and grim with gory jaws, his grisly teeth shall grind.""
Etymology
Possibly from Middle English *hori (suggested by horilocket (“hoary-locked, having hoary locks or curls”)), equivalent to hoar + -y. Alternatively, Middle English horilocket may represent Middle English hor (“hoar, hoary”) + ilocket (“locked”) rather than hori (“hoary”) + locket (“locked”).
Related phrases
More for "hoary"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.