graying

1 of 2

adjective

gray·​ing ˈgrā-iŋ 

variants or less commonly greying

1

: becoming gray or dull in color

His … hat thumbed back to show a wide brow and a bristle of graying hair.

—Helen MacInnes

Other objects had been mounted according to kind on graying scraps of plywood, which leaned about the room—against bookshelves, in corners—like canvases about a painter's studio.

—Donovan Hohn

2

: having hair that is becoming gray : becoming older

Through heavy promotion and advertising directed at a graying population, the nutritious elixir has become a blockbuster seller …

—Michael J. McCarthy

As I wait to pay the cashier, secure in her glass booth, I glance back over the starkly lit room, the graying waiters, the regulars hunched over stacks of hotcakes.

—Javier Cabral

graying

2 of 2

present participle of gray entry 3

Examples of graying in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

But there were more gray and graying, bald and balding heads in the church than those with crew cuts or thick hair. — Dave Duffey, Outdoor Life, 26 Mar. 2026

Looking at your parents’ and grandparents’ heads of hair is probably the best indicator of your own graying timeline. — Sarah Garone, Health, 21 Feb. 2025

Leng was in his early fifties, with a bowl cut of coarse graying hair. — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 15 Apr. 2024

Holding the entire assemblage aloft in the graying Vienna morning was a 30-foot pair of collapsible hang glider wings. — Smithsonian Magazine, 17 Aug. 2023

With its special anti-graying formula, this product is perfect for keeping delicate garments at their brightest and most vibrant. — Amber Smith, Discover Magazine, 4 Apr. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

1796, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for graying

• baying
• braying
• faying
• flaying
• fraying
• greying
• haying
• laying
• neighing
• paying
• playing
• praying