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
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.
Brad Pitt is a grizzled racing driver burdened by his past who helps lead a struggling Formula One team to glory.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
"As a crime viewer, I've had enough of troubled, grizzled detectives in the wilderness battling their demons," he said.
From BBC ● May 19, 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
She had loved listening to the men on the benches too; to freeriders tough as leather, courtly knights and bold young squires, grizzled old men- at-arms.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
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.
