grizzled
Americanadjective
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having gray or partly gray hair.
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gray or partly gray.
adjective
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streaked or mixed with grey; grizzly; griseous
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having grey or partly grey hair
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of grizzled
Explanation
If someone's hair is streaked with gray, you can describe it as grizzled. Your dad's grizzled beard might need a trim by the end of your two-week camping trip. As well as a good way to talk about the silvery hair (or facial hair) itself, you can also describe a person as grizzled. Before he went totally white-haired, Santa Claus must have been grizzled. This adjective comes from a 14th-century noun, grizzle, which meant both "gray-haired old man" and "gray horse," and probably came from the Old French grisel, "gray."
Vocabulary lists containing grizzled
The Sea of Monsters
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Ancient Wisdom: Synonyms for "Old"
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The Shining
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
When Knueppel was just 14 years old, he was thrown into a league of grizzled clock-punchers, retirees and guys reliving their college glory days.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 8, 2026
Compare them to the grizzled, huffy statesmen who previously played those roles, especially in the 2002 ITV adaptation.
From Salon • Mar. 28, 2026
Playing his third official round at Riviera Country Club, the 26-year-old from South Carolina navigated the renowned course like a grizzled veteran.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 21, 2026
Robert Duvall was a distinguished and prolific screen actor who lent a brooding intensity and grizzled authority to seven decades of American film-making.
From BBC • Feb. 16, 2026
If you must use a grizzled old word, treat it with respect.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
