hoar adjective, noun, & verb. [hɔ:]
[Old English hār = Old Saxon, Old High German hēr old, venerable (German hehr august, stately, sacred), Old Norse hárr hoary, old from Germanic, from Indo-European stem meaning 'shine'.]
A. adjective.
1. Grey-haired or (of a thing) grey with age; ancient, venerable. OE.
■ R. Jefferies A very old hare, quite hoar with age.
■ H. C. Adams To trace legends back to yet more hoar antiquity.

2. Esp. of hair, or of a thing covered with frost: grey, greyish-white. OE.
■ Coleridge Whose beard with age is hoar.
■ W. de la Mare A northern wind had frozen the grass; its blades were hoar with crystal rime.

3. Of a tree or wood: grey from absence of foliage or because covered in lichen. Long arch. & poet. ME.

4. Grey with mould; mouldy, musty. obsolete exc. dial. LME.

Comb.:
hoar-frost frozen (in Meteorology, distinctly crystalline) water vapour deposited in clear still weather on grass etc.; hoarhead arch. a hoary head; an old or grey-haired person; hoar-headed adjective grey-haired; hoarstone an ancient stone, esp. as marking a boundary.
b. noun.
1. A grey-haired person. OE-ME.

2. Hoariness; hoary appearance; hoar-frost. LME.
C. verb trans. & intrans. Make or become hoary. OE-M18.

[TahlilGaran] English Dictionary ▲