grizzled

American  

[griz-uhld] / ˈgrɪz əld /

adjective

1. having gray or partly gray hair.

2. gray or partly gray.

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grizzled British  

/ ˈɡrɪzəld /

adjective

1. streaked or mixed with grey; grizzly; griseous

2. having grey or partly grey hair

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Other Word Forms

• ungrizzled adjective

Etymology

Origin of grizzled

1350–1400; Middle English. See grizzle ¹, -ed ³

Explanation

If someone's hair is streaked with gray, you can describe it as grizzled. Your dad's grizzled beard might need a trim by the end of your two-week camping trip. As well as a good way to talk about the silvery hair (or facial hair) itself, you can also describe a person as grizzled. Before he went totally white-haired, Santa Claus must have been grizzled. This adjective comes from a 14th-century noun, grizzle, which meant both "gray-haired old man" and "gray horse," and probably came from the Old French grisel, "gray."

Example Sentences

Compare them to the grizzled, huffy statesmen who previously played those roles, especially in the 2002 ITV adaptation.

From Salon • Mar. 28, 2026

It was a grizzled 20-something with experience playing against grown men.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 21, 2026

Duvall often said his favorite role, however, was one he played in a 1989 TV mini-series -- the grizzled, wise-cracking Texas Ranger-turned-cowboy Augustus McCrae in "Lonesome Dove," based on the novel by Larry McMurtry.

From Barron's • Feb. 16, 2026

Robert Duvall was a distinguished and prolific screen actor who lent a brooding intensity and grizzled authority to seven decades of American film-making.

From BBC • Feb. 16, 2026

Mixed in with all the college students and farm boys and out- of-work loggers, there were grizzled hard-rock miners from all over the West.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown