hoar

[hawr, hohr]

See more synonyms for hoar on Thesaurus.com

noun

hoarfrost; rime.
a hoary coating or appearance.

adjective

hoary.

Origin of hoar

before 900; Middle English hor, Old English hār; cognate with Old Norse hārr gray with age, Old Frisian hēr gray, Old High German hēr old (German hehr august, sublime)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for hoar

chilly, icy, wintry, frigid, glacial, ice, freeze, hoarfrost, hoar, arctic, chill, cool, frozen, gelid, nippy, shivery, antarctic, rimy

Examples from the Web for hoar

Historical Examples of hoar

At Amherst a large gathering of students listened to Senator Hoar.
The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV
Various
How eagerly I now would pierce The gulf that groweth wild and hoar!
Enamels and Cameos and other Poems
Thophile Gautier
"All right, all right—not at all—not at all—" He ran on, joining the hoar and shouting wave.
The Long Roll
Mary Johnston
He did this in common with all the world, including Hoar himself.
The Education of Henry Adams
Henry Adams
Among others they quarrelled with Hoar, and drove him from office.
The Education of Henry Adams
Henry Adams

British Dictionary definitions for hoar

hoar

noun

short for hoarfrost

adjective

rare covered with hoarfrost
archaic a poetic variant of hoary

Word Origin for hoar

Old English hār; related to Old Norse hārr, Old High German hēr, Old Slavonic sěrǔ grey

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for hoar

adj.

Old English har "hoary, gray, venerable, old," the connecting notion being gray hair, from Proto-Germanic *haira (cf. Old Norse harr "gray-haired, old," Old Saxon, Old High German her "distinguished, noble, glorious," German hehr), from PIE *kei-, source of color adjectives (see hue (n.1)). German also uses the word as a title of respect, in Herr. Of frost, it is recorded in Old English, perhaps expressing the resemblance of the white feathers of frost to an old man's beard. Used as an attribute of boundary stones in Anglo-Saxon, perhaps in reference to being gray with lichens, hence its appearance in place-names.