grays

1. 1
   shadesnoun

   Plural of gray.

   The designer chose three muted grays for the office walls.

   Soft grays dominated the photographer's winter landscapes.

   Note

   In the color meaning the plural names distinct shades, not more of one thing: a palette of cool grays. It also counts gray horses and salmon, gray whales, and the big-eyed aliens of UFO stories. In physics it measures absorbed radiation: two grays is two joules per kilogram, and this unit is spelled with an a everywhere, never greys.

2. 2
   turns silververb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of gray.

   Stress grays the hair faster than many people expect.

   Untreated cedar grays within a few seasons of weathering.

   Note

   The verb behind this form runs both ways: stress grays the hair, while cedar left in the weather simply grays on its own. The intransitive use stretches to whole populations, so a county grays when the average age of its residents keeps rising. Watch the subject: it is grays after a singular noun (the beard grays) and gray after a plural (beards gray).

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