grizzle

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɪzəl/

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɪzəl/, /ˈɡɹɪzl̩/

  • Audio (US):

    (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

• gristle (not to be confused with)

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.

A West Country dialect term,^[1] perhaps from Old English grisan (“shudder”), which would make it a cognate of modern English grisly (not grizzly).

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

1. To cry continuously but not very loudly (said especially of young children).
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^[1], 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