grizzle

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɪzəl/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪzəl

From Middle English grisel, gryselle, from Old French grisel, from gris (“grey”), from Frankish *grīs, from Proto-Germanic *grīsaz.

grizzle (plural grizzles)

1. A dark grey colour.

   grizzle:  

2. Grey hair.
3. A grey wig.

• grizzly

grizzle

1. Of a grey colour.

grizzle (third-person singular simple present grizzles, present participle grizzling, simple past and past participle grizzled)

1. To make or become grey, as with age.
   • R. F. Burton

     hardship of the way such as would grizzle little children

   • Pall Mall Magazine

     I found myself on the Nubian desert shaking hands with a grizzling man whom men addressed as Collins Bey.

From English West Country dialect.[1]

grizzle (third-person singular simple present grizzles, present participle grizzling, simple past and past participle grizzled)

1. to cry continuously but not very loudly - especially of a young child.
2. (UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) To whinge or whine.
   • 1888, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, The Yeomen of the Guard […] , London: Chappel & Co., […], published c. 1911:

     [Wilfred:] In tears, eh? What a plague art thou grizzling for now?

   • 1976, New Zealand House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates‎, page 4850:

     R. J. Tizard — What are you grizzling about now?

   • 2009, Judy Waite, Game Girls, unnumbered page:

     The pin-thin girl is grizzling, whining that she has sand in her eyes.

3. (UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) To fuss or cry
   • 1990, The Baby Book, →ISBN, page 88:

     New mothers frequently complain that their partner won't get up to change a wet nappy or comfort a grizzling baby.

• grizzler

• Appendix:Colors