Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Gray or white with or as if with age.
  • adjective Covered with grayish hair or pubescence.
  • adjective So old as to inspire veneration; ancient.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • White or whitish.
  • White or gray with age: as, hoary hairs.
  • Figuratively, remote in time past: as, hoary antiquity.
  • 4. Musty; moldy: as, hoary bread.
  • In botany and entomology, covered with short, dense, grayish-white hairs; canescent.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective White or whitish.
  • adjective White or gray with age; hoar.
  • adjective remote in time past.
  • adjective obsolete Moldy; mossy; musty.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) Of a pale silvery gray.
  • adjective (Bot.) Covered with short, dense, grayish white hairs; canescent.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) an American bat (Atalapha cinerea), having the hair yellowish, or brown, tipped with white.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective white or gray with age
  • adjective zoology of a pale silvery gray.
  • adjective botany covered with short, dense, grayish white hairs; canescent
  • adjective obsolete remote in time past
  • adjective obsolete moldy; mossy; musty
  • adjective old, or old-fashioned

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective ancient
  • adjective covered with fine whitish hairs or down
  • adjective showing characteristics of age, especially having grey or white hair

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

hoar +‎ -y

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Examples

Comments

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  • "Five years ago, when American forces quickly dismantled Iraqi society, liberal as well as conservative pundits announced that it was up to our forces to restore 'stability' -- as if the Iraqis themselves had wrought the chaos from which we were to rescue them. Though the American military did most of the destabilizing in Iraq, this historical fact was set aside in favor of the hoary myth that America is invariably a force for good, uniquely dedicated and qualified to bring order out of chaos around the world."

    - 'General Entrap-Us or General Entrapped?', Ira Chernus, 6 April 2008.

    April 7, 2008

  • "The drunkest of Hrothgar's thanes come reeling and clanking down from their wall-hung beds, all shouting their meady, outrageous boasts, their heavy swords aswirl like eagles' wings. 'Woe, woe, woe!" cries Hrothgar, hoary with winters, peeking in, wide-eyed from his bedroom in back."

    ~ Grendel/John Gardner/1971 ~

    September 17, 2009