greener

Pluralgreeners

1. 1
   adjective

   Comparative of green.

   The valley grew greener as the rains returned.

   The newer leaves are greener than the older ones near the trunk.

   Note

   The comparative carries green's figurative meanings as well as its color. Roger Neary of DBC could call rail freight "a much greener alternative" to road haulage in 2021, while Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast (1950) bends the word order for effect: "a darkness greener." The same spelling is also a noun, as in the slang word for a newcomer. Only the noun takes a plural, greeners; the adjective never does.

2. 2
   nounslangderogatorycountable

   A disparaging term for an ecological activist passionate about protecting the natural environment.

   Local developers sneered at the greeners camped outside the construction site.

   To the oil executives, he was nothing more than a meddling greener.

   Similargreenie, treehugger, environmentalist

   Note

   The sneering counterpart to green as a noun, where a Green is simply a member of a green party or an environmentalist. Calling someone a greener instead casts their commitment as zeal to be dismissed, so the word tells you more about the speaker's stance than about the activist. Like the newcomer insult, it is slang, and only context separates the two.

3. 3
   nounslangderogatorycountable

   A derogatory term for a newcomer or a recent immigrant.

   The dockhands ribbed the greener mercilessly during his first week.

   Veterans of the neighborhood looked down on the greeners who had just moved in.

   Similargreenhorn, newcomer, greenie, newbie

   Oppositeveteran, old-timer

   Note

   An insult built on green's sense of "inexperienced": the newcomer is mocked as someone who does not yet know the ropes. It is slang and openly derogatory, so it belongs in reported speech or a character's voice rather than in a neutral description of anyone. In the plural it is greeners, and the article (a greener, the greeners) is what shows it is a noun and not the comparative.

4. 4
   noun

   Agent noun of green; someone or something that greens.

   Compost works as a natural greener for tired soil.

   The fertilizer is sold as a fast-acting lawn greener.

   Note

   A neutral, regular formation: the verb green plus the agentive -er. Unlike the slang nouns, it carries no sneer, and its agent can be a thing as easily as a person, such as a fertilizer, a compost or a planting crew. The plural is the regular greeners. It is rare enough that a modifier or context usually has to make clear what is doing the greening.

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