grays
/ɡɹeɪz/ · gray·s
noun
- An achromatic colour intermediate between black and white. The walls were painted a soft shade of grays that made the room feel calm.
- An animal or thing of grey colour, such as a horse, badger, or salmon. The herd of grays crossed the meadow, their coats blending with the mist.
- An extraterrestrial humanoid with grayish skin, bulbous black eyes, and an enlarged head. The documentary claimed that the grays had been sighted near the desert base.
- In the International System of Units, the derived unit of absorbed dose of radiation; one joule of energy absorbed per kilogram of mass. Symbol: Gy. The patient received 2.5 grays of radiation during the therapy session.
verb
- To become gray. As the winter approached, the pine needles began to gray.
- To cause to become gray. The harsh chemicals will gray the fabric if left untreated.
- To turn progressively older, alluding to the graying of hair through aging (used of a population). Demographers note that the country is graying faster than any of its neighbors.
Did you know? The radiation unit ‘gray’ (symbol Gy) was named after British physicist Louis Harold Gray, and its plural ‘grays’ is commonly used in medical dosimetry.