gray hair

gray hair

1. Literally, hair that has lightened to a grayish color, typically due to aging. I'm only 30—how do I have gray hair already?
2. By extension, negative or undesired physical effects (such as hair that has lightened) due to being exceedingly worried, stressed, or upset by or about something or someone. I'm getting gray hair from being around these screaming kids all day long. I'm going to get gray hair from my teenage daughter and all her wild behavior. I'm going to get gray hair from dealing with this stupid car breaking down all the time!
See also: gray, hair
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

*gray hair(s)

 
1. Lit. a lightening of the hair caused by aging or hereditary factors. (*Typically: get ~ have ~ give someone ∼.) I get more gray hair the older I get. I guess my genes give me gray hair.
2. Fig. a lightening of the hair caused by stress or frustration. (*Typically: get ~ have ~ give someone ∼.) I'm getting gray hairs because I have three teenage boys. I have gray hair from raising four kids.
See also: gray, hair
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • have gray hair
  • get in (one's) hair
  • get in somebody's hair
  • the carpet matches the drapes
  • the carpets match the drapes
  • the drapes match the carpet
  • out of curl
  • (as) black as night
  • black as night
  • tear one's hair, to
References in classic literature
The younger, on the contrary, not wishing to become the wife of an old man, was equally zealous in removing every gray hair she could find.
Fables
A man with gray hair had thrown himself from the boat into the river and was swimming vigorously toward the person who was drowning; but being obliged to go against the current he advanced but slowly.
"Saved!" exclaimed the man with gray hair, who also touched bottom.
sir, what gratitude I feel!" exclaimed the man with gray hair.
Twenty Years After
He sat down by his wife, his elbows on his knees and his hands ruffling his gray hair.
War and Peace
He was a very lean man, of no more than average height, with gray hair cut short and a stubbly gray moustache.
Moon and Sixpence
But he came of a long-lived family, he had not a single gray hair, no one would have taken him for forty, and he remembered Varenka's saying that it was only in Russia that men of fifty thought themselves old, and that in France a man of fifty considers himself dans la force de l'age, while a man of forty is un jeune homme.
Anna Karenina
They asked questions of a handsome, black-eyed man with curly gray hair, who talked to them in a German accent, while a cheery-faced woman smiled down at them out of a trellised high window of the Swiss cottage perched on the bank.
The Valley of the Moon
Aunt Polly had drooped into a settled melancholy, and her gray hair had grown almost white.
Tom Sawyer
He was a tall old man, with a sallow skin and hollow cheeks; his gray hair was thin and long.
Of Human Bondage
He strews the seeds of anxiety upon the decks of scudding ships, makes the foam-stripped ocean look old, and sprinkles with gray hairs the heads of ship-masters in the homeward-bound ships running for the Channel.
Mirror of the Sea
ENPNewswire-August 21, 2019--Ashland helps defy gray hair with re-launch of Chromafend biofunctional
Ashland helps defy gray hair with re-launch of Chromafend biofunctional
Kate Middleton's gray hair recent triggered discussions about the age of the Duchess of Cambridge.
Kate Middleton's Gray Hair Triggers Discussions Among Royal Fans
I saw my first gray hair in my early thirties, and it was cause for concern.
This game-changer turns gray hair back to black without dyes
While gray hair on men can be seen as not only fashionable, but attractive, gray hair on women is often seen as less desirable--a sign of age, not of distinction as it is in men.
Shampoos are helping invigorate the men's hair category