graybeard

Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

gray·beard

(grā′bîrd′)

1. An old man.

2. A person considered to have extensive or valuable experience in something: "His appointment as interim C.E.O. suggests that the firm has placed a financial graybeard at the helm while it searches for a more permanent new leader" (New York Times).

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

gray•beard

(ˈgreɪˌbɪərd)

n.

a man whose beard is gray; old man; sage.

[1570–80]

gray′beard′ed, adj.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Noun

graybeard - a man who is very old

greybeard, old man, Methuselah

codger, old codger - used affectionately to refer to an eccentric but amusing old man

adult male, man - an adult person who is male (as opposed to a woman); "there were two women and six men on the bus"

golden ager, old person, oldster, senior citizen - an elderly person

antique, gaffer, old geezer, oldtimer, old-timer - an elderly man

patriarch - a man who is older and higher in rank than yourself

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

But dreams--of those who dream as I, Aspiringly, are damned, and die: Yet should I swear I mean alone, By notes so very shrilly blown, To break upon Time's monotone, While yet my vapid joy and grief Are tintless of the yellow leaf-- Why not an imp the graybeard hath, Will shake his shadow in my path-- And e'en the graybeard will o'erlook Connivingly my dreaming-book.

View in context

He was a glutton for gore, was this little, whiskered, gray monkey, so long as it was the gore of others-- a typical fight fan was the graybeard.

View in context

"So, fellow-pilgrims," said he, "here we are, seven wise men, and one fair damsel--who, doubtless, is as wise as any graybeard of the company: here we are, I say, all bound on the same goodly enterprise.

View in context

'So, fellow-pilgrims,' said he, 'here we are, seven wise men, and one fair damsel- who, doubtless, is as wise as any graybeard of the company: here we are, I say, all bound on the same goodly enterprise.