battleship gray

American  

noun

1. a subdued bluish gray.

---

Other Word Forms

• battleship-gray adjective

Etymology

Origin of battleship gray

An Americanism dating back to 1825–35

Example Sentences

Everything was battleship gray: the floor, walls, filing cabinets, a desk, and two chairs.

From Literature

Across the Channel in the English port of Dover, the skies Saturday were the same battleship gray, the sea state queasy with chop.

From Washington Post

“It will become mottled, battleship gray, even black. But that’s what tin does. If you try to scrub it away, you just wear the lining away.”

From Washington Post

The sky was a uniform battleship gray.

From Literature

But two irresistibly creepy close-up views of picket fences are proof that you can’t really escape your context: One set of wobbly stakes is battleship gray, the other streaky off-white, and each looks like an infinite row of demonic fingers.

From New York Times